Edwin McMasters Stanton

Edwin McMasters Stanton 1814-69, American statesman, b. Steubenville, Ohio. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1836 and began to practice law in Cadiz. As his reputation grew, he moved first to Steubenville (1839), then to Pittsburgh (1847), and finally to Washington, D.C. (1856), becoming ever more prominent in his profession. In Dec., 1860, Stanton, a Democrat but a strong Unionist, succeeded Jeremiah S. Black as U.S. Attorney General in President Buchanan's cabinet. Later, he became legal adviser to Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of War, Simon Cameron. Appointed to take Cameron's place in Jan., 1862, he proved to be an extremely forceful and able Secretary of War. Contracts ceased to be opportunities for graft; the railroads were placed under military control; and Union generals in the field were supplied with necessary men and matériel. One of the leading radicals in the Lincoln administration, Stanton worked closely with the radicals in Congress and used his influence with Lincoln to advance their program. Deeply grieved by Lincoln's death, he arranged for a swift trial of the alleged conspirators by a military court. Stanton remained in President Andrew Johnson's cabinet, but serious differences over Reconstruction policy led Johnson to demand (Aug., 1867) his resignation. When he refused to resign, Johnson suspended him, first appointing Ulysses S. Grant as secretary ad interim and then appointing Lorenzo Thomas as permanent Secretary of War. Stanton, however, barricaded himself in his office, and the radicals in Congress, claiming that Johnson's actions violated the Tenure of Office Act, initiated impeachment proceedings against him. When Johnson was acquitted (May, 1868), Stanton resigned. He died shortly after President Grant appointed him to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bibliography: See biographies by F. Pratt (1953, repr. 1970) and B. P. Thomas and H. M. Hyman (1962); study by R. G. Mangrum (1980).

Stanton, Edwin McMasters (1814–69) US political leader. Attorney general under President Buchanan and associated with southern Democrats, he was a firm unionist and was appointed secretary of war by Abraham Lincoln (1862). He retained his office under Andrew Johnson and attempted to mediate between the president and the Republican Congress over Reconstruction. Johnson's efforts to dismiss Stanton led to his own impeachment. Stanton was forced to resign (1868) after Johnson was acquitted.

Stanton, Edwin M. (1814–69), secretary of war under President Abraham Lincoln, was born in Steubenville, Ohio, 19 December 1814.Admitted to the bar in 1836, Stanton made a quick reputation for brilliance. Moving to Pittsburgh in 1847, he won national attention by representing Pennsylvania before the Supreme Court in an interstate commerce suit. A growing Supreme Court practice took him to Washington, D. C. in 1857.

In 1858, Stanton exposed a conspiracy to defraud the government of some $150 million worth of land in California. This catapulted him into the office of U.S. Attorney General when President James Buchanan reorganized his cabinet in December 1860. Democrat Stanton opposed slavery and supported the Wilmot Proviso, but accepted the Dred Scott decision. He tried to strengthen Buchanan's policy against secession and to reinforce Fort Sumter.

Stanton returned to private life when Buchanan's term ended. He distrusted Lincoln and befriended Gen. George B. McClellan when he took charge of army operations and openly derided Lincoln and his administration. Nevertheless, Lincoln invited him to replace Simon Cameron as Secretary of War in January 1862. Inheriting an administrative shambles, Stanton soon restored honesty and order.

Brusque and intemperate with people, rigid and vigorous in pursuit of victory, Stanton made few friends in his department or the cabinet, but he and the president gradually forged mutual admiration. Lincoln trusted Stanton's judgment and came to rely heavily on his advice. An active war secretary, Stanton lost faith in McClellan. In September 1863, Stanton's dispatch of 23,000 men from east to west in less than seven days to reinforce Gen. William S. Rosecrans ranks as a logistical marvel. An early admirer of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, he pushed his advancement, and enthusiastically approved his appointment as general‐in‐chief of the Union armies in 1864.

Meddling in civil affairs, Stanton censored newspapers and had citizens arrested for suspicion of disloyalty. Although Stanton and Grant got along well, the general disliked the secretary's abrupt and severe rebuke of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman for his proposed surrender terms to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston.

Lincoln's assassination released a fanatical streak in Stanton, who pushed the execution of Mrs. Mary Surratt and tried to implicate Jefferson Davis in the assassination plot. President Andrew Johnson kept Stanton at his post—an error he soon regretted. Although Stanton did a masterful job in demobilizing the Union armies, he joined the Republican Radicals against presidential reconstruction policies. He did, however, oppose the Tenure of Office Act (aimed at keeping him in office).

When Johnson asked for his resignation in August 1867, the secretary refused to leave office until Congress reconvened in December (he argued that since the Tenure of Office Act had been passed over Johnson's veto, it was law). Johnson suspended him but was overridden by the Senate in January 1868. The president dismissed Stanton in February 1868, but Stanton held on and even ordered the arrest of Adjutant‐General Lorenzo Thomas, whom Johnson had named as secretary ad interim. Stanton resigned when Johnson's impeachment failed. Appointed by President Grant to the Supreme Court, Stanton died on December 24, 1869, four days after his confirmation.

Bibliography

Frank A. Flower , Edwin McMasters Stanton: The Autocrat of Rebellion, Emancipation, and Reconstruction, 1905.
Benjamin P. Thomas and and Harold M. Hyman , Stanton: The Life and Times of Lincoln's Secretary of War, 1962.

Frank E. Vandiver