Edwin McMasters Stanton was an American lawyer and politician who served as Secretary of War under the Lincoln Administration during most of the American Civil War. Stanton's management helped organize the massive military resources of the North and guide the Union to victory. He also organized the manhunt for Lincoln's killer, John Wilkes Booth.
Background
Stanton was born on December 19, 1814 in Steubenville, Ohio, the first of David and Lucy Stanton's four children. The Stantons later had two daughters, Oella and Pamphilia, and another son, Darwin. In his youth, Edwin was "physically delicate, grave and studious", as well as frank, eloquent and empathetic, according to his classmates.
Education
Edwin's early formal education consisted of a private school and a seminary behind the Stantons' residence, called "Old Academy". When he was ten, he was transferred to a school taught by a Presbyterian minister, where he studied Latin, Greek, history and other "higher branches". Stanton began his tertiary studies at the Episcopal-affiliated Kenyon College in 1831. At Kenyon, Stanton worked earnestly at his studies. He was prominently involved in the college's Philomathesian Literary Society. Stanton sat on several of the society's committees, and often partook in its exercises and debates. Stanton was forced to leave Kenyon just as his second year began. His time at the school was short but fruitful. He had completed his courses in history, mathematics, chemistry, political economy, geology and Latin.
Career
Admitted to the Ohio bar in 1836, Stanton became a highly successful attorney. In 1847 he moved to Pittsburgh and nine years later to Washington, D. C. , where he built a wide practice in the federal courts.
During all these years Stanton remained a staunch Democrat but grew steadily more outspoken in support of antislavery measures. In December 1860 he was appointed attorney general by Pres. James Buchanan. In that capacity, as tension accelerated between North and South, he opposed the abandonment of Fort Sumter in the Charleston, South Carolina, harbour by Union forces. Fearing the success of secessionist influences, he secretly advised Republican leaders of the cabinet’s proceedings. Although he was a caustic critic of President-elect Lincoln in this period, he was, nevertheless, made legal adviser to Lincoln’s secretary of war, Simon Cameron, and, when Cameron resigned under fire less than a year later, Stanton accepted appointment as his successor (January 13, 1862). During the remainder of the Civil War, he proved an able, energetic administrator, despite his nervous, asthmatic constitution and cranky, contradictory temperament. Exceedingly patriotic and zealous in his honesty, he insisted on tighter management of his department, gave short shrift to patronage seekers, and continually pushed for a more aggressive prosecution of the war. He provoked violent quarrels with nearly every important federal military commander.
After the assassination of Lincoln (April 1865), Stanton played a leading role in the investigation and trial of the conspirators, and for a short time he virtually directed the conduct of government in the stricken capital. He agreed to continue in his post under Pres. Andrew Johnson and skillfully managed the demobilization of Union forces. Stanton was soon at loggerheads with Johnson, however, over the nature of Reconstruction policy toward the defeated South. The secretary of war used his position to foster stricter Reconstruction measures than the president desired; in addition Stanton acted as the secret representative, within the cabinet, of the Radical Republicans in Congress, who were Johnson’s bitter enemies. The situation finally became so untenable that Johnson tried to remove Stanton from office, but the stubborn secretary refused to be dismissed, claiming that the Tenure of Office Act - passed by the Radicals in Congress (1867) over the president’s veto - protected his official position. Johnson’s persistence resulted in his impeachment by an unsympathetic House of Representatives. When the Senate vote fell one short of conviction, Stanton had no alternative but to surrender his office (May 26, 1868) and return to private law practice. He died four days after his appointment to the U. S. Supreme Court by Pres. Ulysses S. Grant.
Connections
At the age of eighteen, Stanton met Mary Ann Lamson at Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbus, and they soon engaged. On December 31, 1836 the couple married. Mary Stanton was left bedridden by a bilious fever. Her condition continued to worsen until she died in March 1844.
In February 1856 Stanton became engaged to Ellen Hutchinson, a girl sixteen years Stanton's junior. The two were married on June 25, 1856 at Hutchinson's father's home. They honeymooned at Niagara Falls, Montreal, the White Mountains and Nahant, Massachusetts. Stanton and Hutchinson moved to Washington after their marriage; part of this decision was rooted in Stanton's belief that he would see important work with the Supreme Court. They leased a home on C Street in Washington.