Stanton - Life and Times of Lincoln's Secretary of War

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r BENJAMIN P. THOMAS AND HAROLD M. HYMAN

\ ''STANTON ... is in1perious ·� : ... fn il\1•, and ahjeel to supPriors.,vantinl-, eerily, given to duplicit� with a ta for intrigue, he has beer , in con­ spirary ... frorn the commencen1ent of his adn1inistration." 11

GIDEON "'ELLES

'� STANTON ...·was one of the great men of the Republic.... I hold him in great personal esteen1 and his character in hi!rh honor." V ULYSSES s. GRANT

AT the time of his death, Benja1nin Thon1as-author of "the best one­ volun1e biography of Lincoln ever \vritten" -\vas at \Vork on a life of one of the most controversial figures in An1erican history: Ed\vin J\1cJ\1asters Stanton, the rnan \vho 1narshaled the 1nilitary forces of the Union in the Civil \\Tar and played a crucial role in the only presidential impeachment trial in our history. Harold Hyman, hiinself a prize-\vin­ ning historian, undertook to carry on fro1n the advanced point in research and \Vriting that Thon1c1s had reached. The result of their collaborative efforts is a 1nonumental \Vork \vorthy to stand beside Thomas's own Lincoln as a truly outstanding A1nerican biography. Continuously absorbing and written w · ith clarity and grace, Stanton sho\vs us everv facet of the life of an unco1nmon n1an \Vho stood just off center stage at the ti1ne of our nation's greatest ordeal. Surprisingly, though Stanton's role in the Union's great crisis is a 1natter of long record, this is the first attempt in ninety years to .1

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\Vith 2-J illu,strations TYPOGRAPHY, Bll\Dir-;G, AND JACKET DESic;.N BY JA�IES HEl\"DRICKSON

BY BENJAMIN P. THOMAS

Lincoln's New Salern (1934, 1954) Abraham Lincoln, A Biography (1952) Theodore Weld, Crusader for Freedom (1950) Portrait for Posterity, Lincoln and His Biographers (1947) Lincoln, 1847-1853 ( 1936)

BY HAROLD M. HYMAN

To Try A1en's Souls: Loyalty Tests in American History ( 1959) Era of the Oath: Northern Loyalty Tests during the Civil War and Reconstruction ( 1954)

__ .STANTON r

The Life and Times efLz·ncoln's Secretary efWar

BENJAMIN P. THOMAS '' AND HAROLD M. HYlVIAN

ALFRED· A· KNOPF· NEW YORK 1962

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L. C. catalog card number: 61-17829 THI!- IS A BOHZOI BOOK, PUBLISHED DY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC.

Copyright © 1962 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. All rights re­ srvd. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages and reproduce not more than three illustrations in a review to be printed m a magazine or new::;paprr. ::\lanufacture� the town, for the use of the room over his shop as a la-w office, for Stanton intended to set up a separate practice while 1naintaining a li1nited association with Dewey. In lieu of rent, Stanton instructed Hunter in law and took son1e of his meals at the I-Iunter home� althou gh the latter _part of this arrangement ended when he brou ght l\1Iary to Cadiz . On the outskirts of the town Stanton found a house to suit hi111 and his bride. Five days before his twenty-second birthd ay, he set out for Colun1bus and his wedding. He and l\1ary had planned to hold the ceremony in the church where they had fi rst 1net, but Stanton fell ill, and it was perfonned in the Reverend Preston's home on December 3 1 , 1 836. The honeymoon was a ride of 1 25 miles to Cadiz in a stage sleigh, which Stanton recalled as the "brightest, sweetest journey of all m y life," and then a visit at Benj amin Tappan's home in SteubenYille. Stanton had known J u d ge Tappan since boyhood. Benja1nin Tappan, Jr., had been one of his schoolmates, and over the years a close relationship had developed between the judge and the fatherless boy. A few months after Edwin 's marriage, in which the Tappan family rej oiced out of fondness for him and enthusiastic liking for Mary, he and Judge Tapp an formed a partnership to practice law in Steubenville , though Stanton continued to live in Cadiz and kept his association with Dewey.G A member of a devout New England family and one of Ohio's early settlers 1 Tappan, now sixty-four, had served in the state senate, on the Ohio canal commission, and as chief judge of the circuit cou rt of common pleas. His support of Andrew J ack son for President earned him an appoin tment as a federal district j u cl ge, but the Senate had refused to confirm him. The j udge's brothers, Arthur and Lewis, both clamorous abolitionists, were the chief financial supporters of the American A ntislavery Soci ety. J udge Tappan, too, disli ked slavery ; but he also d istrusted agitators and preferred to keep silent on the subject : a practice which i m pressionable youn g Stanton later emulated . 6

"\\'olcott MS, 52-5, 1 0.5-6 ; John L. M i n er to Stanton, Nov. 18, 1 835, Ben j a m i n Te ppan, Sr., to J r. , D Pc. 28, 1 8.1 6, .\ larch 8. 1 837. Ta ppan, J r. , to S t an t on , Feb. 26, 1 837, Tappan Pa pns, LC ; Flowrr, Stanton, 32 ; Dar