Wayne MacVeagh

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Biography

Wayne MacVeagh married Simon Cameron's daughter, Virginia. Local lore remembers him as the "intellectual" of the Cameron-McCormick family.

The most famous anecdote relating to Wayne is that, according to legend, Wayne told President Lincoln that the Gettysburg address was a fine speech, and Lincoln replied that his was the only compliment that he had heard.

Active in politics as a liberal republican, Wayne sharply broke ranks from the Cameron-McCormick family, creating quite a stir in this high-profile group (especially in the mind of his Democratic Senator father-in-law), serving as Attorney General under President Garfield and later supporting Grover Cleveland for President. He was one of the major players in writing the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1874, a document of political reform, and supported the Civil Service movement.

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This site is sponsored by the Center for Pennsylvania Cultural Studies at the Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg, in cooperation with the Historical Society of Dauphin County, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Director of the McCormick Family Papers Project at the Center is Professor Michael Barton.

Learn more about the Center, and the program that sponsors this project

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