SIMEON DRAPER
Ever since the beginning of the Republic, the major source of Federal revenue was customs duty from New York. The collector employed a massive bureaucracy and was then one of the largest patronage controller in the country. Thurlow Weed and other New York political bosses offered Abraham Lincoln their political support if Lincoln would give them control of the patronage. On September 5, 1864 Lincoln fired his man, Hiram Barney, and replaced him with Draper. The new collector promptly replaced key personnel down the line and stated publicly:
Simeon Draper was a prominent merchant and politician in New York City. During the American Civil War, he was the federal government's agent for receiving captured cotton from the Confederate States of America and selling it to benefit the Union war effort.
