Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/662

 656 CAMERONIANS CAMEROONS MOUNTAINS and in favor of the proposition to extend the Missouri compromise line to the Pacific. Af- ter the repeal of the Missouri compromise in 1854 he allied himself with the republican par- ty, and in 1857 was again elected United States senator. In the republican convention held at Chicago in May, 1860, he was proposed as a candidate for the presidency, and on the first ballot received about 50 votes. Mr. Cameron's name was then withdrawn, his friends voting for Mr. Lincoln. On Lincoln's inauguration, March 4, 1861, Mr. Cameron became secretary of war. He remained in the cabinet till Jan. 14, 1862, when he resigned, and was appointed minister to Russia, being succeeded as secre- tary of war by Mr. Stanton. He retained the mission to Russia only a short time, and return- ed to America in November, 1862. In 1866 he was again elected to the United States senate, and in 1872 was chosen chairman of the com- mittee on foreign relations, in place of Mr. Sum- ner. He was reflected as a senator in 1873. CA3IERONLANS, a sect of Scotch Presbyterian dissenters, named after Richard Cameron. James I. .had enforced on his Scottish subjects a liturgy which the people abhorred. This ex- ercise of the royal prerogative led in 1688 to 'the formation of the covenant, "in behalf of the true religion and freedom of the kingdom." The organization of the Scottish presbytery was still further completed in the adoption of the Presbyterian form of church government, a Calvinistic confession of faith, and the two catechisms, which documents are still the standards of the Scottish kirk. The act of 1661 of the English and Scotch parliaments against conventicles, the legalized persecutions under Turner, Dalziel, and Drummond, the famous writ of law-burrows issued by Charles II. in 1670, the intercommuning expedient of Lauderdale and Sharpe, and the execution of Mitchell in 1679, had all contributed to exasperate the Covenanters to a point where they thought forbearance ceased to be a duty. The Covenanters had made a stand at Bothwell Bridge, and had been disastrously defeated. Many of them sought to screen themselves from royal vengeance by frequenting the churches of the indulged ministers. But a few, headed by Cameron and Cargill, met at Sanquhar, June 22, 1680, and there promulgated "A Declaration and Testimonie of the true Pres- byterian, Anti-Prelatic, Anti-Erastian, and Persecuted Party in Scotland," proclaimed war against the king as a tyrant and usurper, and protested against receiving the duke of York in Scotland. Only 66 men could be mustered to sustain this declaration. They took their stand at Aird's Moss on July 20 following, where Cameron and several of his followers fell in a skirmish. Cargill escaped and con- tinued to preach the doctrines of the sect in fields and woods. When the royalists added the test (1681), the Covenanters, or Cameroni- ans, as they were henceforth known, formally -denounced it at Lanark, Jan. 12, 1682, and again affirmed the Sanquhar declaration. This they repeated in 1684, and again in 1685, on the accession of the duke of York as James II. They remained inflexible throughout the reign of that king, and supported the prince of Orange on his assuming the crown of England, but were displeased by the form in which the Presbyterian church was restored. They sub- sequently exerted all their influence against the union of Scotland and England. They are in Scotland sometimes denominated "Old Presby- terian Dissenters," as Calvinistic in doctrine, Presbyterian in government, and dissenters from the church of Scotland. The presbytery of this denomination was not organized till Aug. 1, 1743, when an act of toleration was procured in their favor, under the appellation of the "Reformed Presbytery." They are now, both in Great Britain and the United States, called Reformed Presbyterians. (See PKESBYTEEIANISM.) CAMEROONS, or Camerones, a river of Upper Guinea, on the W. coast of Africa. It enters the bight of Biafra by an estuary 20 m. wide, in which are several large islands. Around its mouth the shores are overgrown with man- groves. For about 40 m. above this it pre- serves an average breadth of 400 yards, and at a point 90 -m. distant from the sea it forms a cataract. During the rainy season it is navi- gable by vessels of any size, but in the dry sea- son its depth is only from 2 to 20 ft. Its total length is unknown. On one of the isl- ands at its mouth is 'the town of Cameroons, the centre of an important commerce, import- ing salt, powder, cloths, hats, and arms, and exporting gum, pepper, ivory, and palm oil. CAMEROONS MOUNTAINS, the loftiest group upon the W. coast of Africa, lying between lat. 3 57' and 4 25' N., and Ion. 9 and 9 30' E., covering an area of about 700 sq. m. They form a huge volcanic mass, the highest sum- mits of which are said to reach an elevation of 13,000 ft. Upon the west the Cameroons touch the gulf of Guinea and the low tract bordering the estuaries of the Rumbi and Old Calabar rivers ; upon the south they also come down to the gulf; upon the east they touch the western branch of the Jamur, the eastern branch of which forms the estuary of the Cameroons river, between Cape Cameroons on the north and Cape Suellaba on the south. The summit of the Cameroons was first ascend- ed by Capt. R. F. Burton and the German botanist Mann at the end of December, 1861. Up to the height of about 4,000 ft, the sides of the mountains are covered with a dense growth of palms, acacias, many species of the fig tree, cardamoms, cabbage trees, African oaks, ericas, enormous ferns, and bamboos; and still higher up by smaller trees and plants. At the elevation of 4,850 ft. begins a labyrinth of lava streams and fields of slag. At the height of 7,900 ft. appear the first craters, of which there are about 28. The natives of the region say that there was an eruption as late as