Stanton, Edwin M.

Stanton, Edwin M. (1814–69) attorney general and secretary of war. An Ohioan he moved to Washington, D.C., where he cultivated some political relationships and took on cases that brought him notice. A Democrat despite his antislavery beliefs, he served as attorney general in the closing months of James Buchanan's administration, urging the preservation of the Union at all costs. After Abraham Lincoln's election, Stanton began to separate himself from the Democratic party over the issue of slavery and served as a legal consultant to Simon Cameron, Lincoln's secretary of war. When Cameron resigned, Lincoln named Stanton to take his place. Stanton eliminated the favoritism and corruption that had plagued the War Department under Cameron. With Lincoln, he directed the prosecution of the war when the commanding general of the Union army, George B. McClellan, and then his successor, Henry W. Halleck, proved reluctant leaders. The appointment of Ulysses S. Grant as Union commanding general eased this situation. Most controversial was his suspension of habeas corpus and his creation of what amounted to a national police force to enforce draft regulations and to maintain the peace after the Emancipation Proclamation. Stanton developed a warm relationship with Lincoln and after the president's assassination led the relentless hunt for the conspirators and personally participated in their prosecution. During Reconstruction he urged the use of strong measures to protect the rights of newly freed blacks and opposed President Andrew Johnson's efforts to end martial law and leave the South to run its own affairs. In 1867 Johnson demanded his resignation, in violation of the Tenure of Office Act; the action was instrumental in leading to Johnson's impeachment. President Grant named him to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1869, but he died before he could assume office.