Edwin Stanton, U.S. secretary of war and attorney
general, was born in Steubenville, Ohio, to devout Methodist parents, Lucy
Norman Stanton and David Stanton, a physician. Beginning in childhood, Edwin
Stanton would suffer from asthma throughout his life. Upon his fatherís death,
he left school at the age of 12 and took a job in a bookstore. He entered Kenyon
College in 1831, but financial constraints forced him to drop out the next year.
He soon began studying law in a law office, passing the Ohio bar in 1835 and
forming a law partnership the next year (after turning 21) with Chauncey Dewey.
He developed a very successful legal career in Ohio, then in Pittsburgh, and
finally in Washington, D. C.
Influenced by a second law partner, Judge (and
later Senator) Benjamin Tappan, Stanton became a Democrat and entered politics.
Stanton won election in 1837 as Harrison Countyís prosecuting attorney, then
served as the Ohio Supreme Courtís recorder from 1842 to 1845. Although active
in the local antislavery society, he continued to support the Democrat party
because of its stance on other issues. Throughout most of the 1840s and 1850s,
though, he concentrated on his law practice, not on politics. He became friends
with the U.S. attorney general under President James Buchanan (1857-1861),
Jeremiah Black, who appointed Stanton to investigate land fraud in California
for the federal government. In 1859 he served as one of the lead attorneys on
the defense team of Congressman Daniel Sickles, who stood accused of murdering
his wifeís lover. Stanton and his colleagues convinced the jury to acquit
Sickles on the grounds of temporary insanity, marking one of the earliest uses
of that plea.
In the 1860 presidential election, Stanton, like
Buchanan and Black, supported the Southern Democratic nominee, John C.
Breckinridge, as the best hope for preserving the Union. In December, following
the election, the lame-duck President Buchanan reorganized his cabinet, moving
Black to the state department. Stanton replaced his friend as attorney general
and worked diligently to keep the Union intact, urging the outgoing president to
take a firm stance against secession and for federal control of Southern forts.
His advice to Buchanan went unheeded, so Stanton began secretly working with the
Republicans, passing information to Senator William Seward and others concerning
the administrationís deliberations.
In March 1861 Stanton returned to his Washington
D.C. law practice, which included giving occasional counsel to President Lincolnís
secretary of war, Simon Cameron. In December of that year Cameron accepted
Stantonís suggestion to strengthen the passage in the secretaryís annual
report that endorsed the use of black troops in the Union military. When Cameron
resigned his post in January 1862 under a cloud of corruption and mismanagement
charges, Lincoln named Stanton to replace him. In so doing, the president
appears to have acted on the advice of Seward, now secretary of state, and
Salmon Chase, secretary of the treasury.
Stanton proved to be a strong, effective cabinet
officer, a talented war manager, and a reformer who instituted practices to rid
the War Department of waste and corruption. By working closely with both
Republican and Democratic congressmen, he was better able to secure passage of
military bills. He enthusiastically endorsed emancipation of the slaves and
confiscation of rebel property. The secretary of war was one of the key voices
encouraging the president to remove General George McClellan, a former friend,
from his position as commanding general of the Union army. Stanton played a
crucial role in selecting commanders, superintending military operations, and
developing strategy, particularly toward a more aggressive policy.
The most controversial aspect of Stantonís job
was as head of internal security. At first he limited the use of martial law,
but reversed that position in the wake of resistance to the draft and
emancipation. Thereafter he more freely suspended the writ of habeas corpus and
authorized extensive military arrests. He exercised strict censorship over war
information through control of the military telegraph system. In March 1863
Congress created in essence a temporary national police force (Provost Marshal
Generalís Bureau) directed by the secretary of war, which Stanton used to
crack down on anti-draft and anti-war dissenters.
Stanton switched allegiance in mid-war from the
"War" Democrats to the Republican party, the latter of which he had
come to identify with the preservation of the Union. During the 1864 election he
generously offered furloughs to servicemen so that they could return home to
vote, assuming correctly that they would cast their ballots overwhelmingly for
Lincolnís reelection. When Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney died in
October 1864, Stanton desired appointment to the post. Lincoln, however,
concluded that he was more important to the Union cause as secretary of war, so
the president named Chase, instead. Upon the assassination of Lincoln, Stanton
is said to have uttered the memorable line, "Now he belongs to the
Stanton continued to serve as President Andrew
Johnsonís secretary of war and initially backed the new presidentís
reconstruction plan. He became distressed, though, over reports of anti-black
violence and resistance to federal control, especially via lawsuits against army
officers. Stanton stayed in the cabinet to provide a voice for tougher
reconstruction policies, and he worked with General Grant behind the scenes to
shift military loyalty from the president to Congress. In March 1867 Congress
passed, over Johnsonís veto, the Tenure of Office Act which forbade a
president from removing a Senate-confirmed appointee without the Senateís
express approval. The law was enacted in large part to protect Stanton, who was
increasingly earning the presidentís ire. The secretary of war himself drafted
the Chain of Command Act of 1867 which legally forced the president to issue
military orders through the commanding general (Grant). The statute was an
attempt to stop Johnson from thwarting the military-enforced reconstruction
policies of Congress.
Stanton supported the Reconstruction Acts of
1867, which implemented Congressional Reconstruction, and he and Grant authored
the third such law, placing military control clearly under Congress rather than
the president. That was the final straw for Johnson, who demanded Stantonís
resignation. After the secretary of war refused, the president suspended him in
August 1867, naming Grant as acting secretary. When Congress reconvened in
January 1868, the Senate judged that Johnsonís action had violated the Tenure
of Office Act, so they restored Stanton to office. The next month the president
again attempted to remove Stanton, this time replacing him with General Lorenzo
Thomas as acting secretary. With Congressional support, Stanton refused to leave
office, claiming job protection under the Tenure of Office Act. Congress simply
ignored Johnsonís pronouncement and, instead, voted to impeach the president.
Meanwhile, Stanton had literally locked himself in the War Department until the
Senate voted on the Presidentís removal, which was narrowly defeated.
Disappointed, Stanton resigned on May 26 and was replaced by General John
In retirement Stantonís chronic asthma left him
a semi-invalid, financially dependent on friends. His wish to sit on the Supreme
Court appeared to be fulfilled when President Grant appointed him to a vacancy
and the Senate confirmed him on the same day, December 20, 1869. He died,
however, four days later in Washington, D. C, before taking his seat.
Sources consulted: American National Biography;
Harperís Encyclopedia of United States History; The Complete Book of
the U.S. Presidents; Harperís Weekly; and Lydia L. Rapoza,
"Edwin Stanton," on the Revolution to Reconstruction Website.