Lincoln Edwin Stanton Who Is This Man

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I don't know about you but the more I learn about Edwin Stanton the more I wonder who he is and what he stood for.

1. He stated the perfect example of the missing link lives right here in Washington and insulted Lincoln on more than one occasion.
2. Swore to George B. McClellan and his father to be George's largest supporter loyal till the end. He even offered to lie naked in a gutter and allow George to stand on his body as long as he saw use of it. Then secretly planned with Lincoln to have him removed from command.
3. Immediately upon Lincolns assignation launch a military tribunal into a case that conventionally should have been tried in a civilian court and jury.

The man seems to me to be a the worst kind of specimen of human life. Conveniently loyal to the cause that SERVERS HIM BEST!

Lincoln knew what Stanton's opinion of him were but thought he could control him. He felt having him in service was more beneficial than dismissing him. What did he see beneficial about a man that was capable of anything that served himself. This guy has me totally confused.
 
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Hold your friends close, and your enemies closer.

There aren't many biographies out there of Stanton, but a new one comes out in April. It oughter be good.
AndyHall I can assure you I will read it. This guy makes me scratch my head. I don't think I have ever run across a character like him anywhere in history or life.
 
Ah, Mr Stanton! He is a fascinating study and you can't help but form a strong opinion of him, positive or negative! He had a surprisingly gentle side - you'd never know it from wartime Stanton, though. He was so deeply in love with his wife that when she died he had her dressed in her bride gown as she would always be his bride. And then he went off the deep end. He would wander around the gardens at night looking for her! And then there was the suicide of his brother, who slit his own throat, and that sent Stanton off his rocker again. (Not certain if he was the one found the body but it seems it may have been so.) He was asthmatic - which was what killed him at the early age of 55 - and that meant little physical work. He concentrated on education, eventually becoming one of the country's finest and most famous lawyers. The McCormick patent case was where he first encountered Lincoln - a prairie lawyer who was rounded up because Illinois law required at least one Illinois lawyer. Stanton's team included two other high-profile and renowned lawyers - McCormick had a real dream team! Stanton was his insufferable self - he called Lincoln a 'long armed creature' and a 'giraffe'. Then the trial was moved to Ohio. The dream team wouldn't let Lincoln in - who came along because he'd been given a fat retainer and thought he was hired - refused to tell him what he needed to know, ignored any and all input from him - all they wanted was for him to leave. He didn't. This was Stanton's first experience with Lincoln's incredible ability to eat a lot of ...stuff!... and make lemonade out of his lemons. He saw an opportunity to watch three high-powered, top of the line lawyers do their jobs and knew a prairie lawyer like himself would never get another such chance. Later down the line, this experience proved invaluable!

I think a little delving into who Edwin Stanton really was will be a good experience! I've read some about him and was prepared to thoroughly dislike him. I still don't like him but do understand him at least a little better in context.
 
Lincoln knew what Stanton's opinion of him were but thought he could control him. He felt having him in service was more beneficial than dismissing him. What did he see beneficial about a man that was capable of anything that served himself. This guy has me totally confused.

I suspect that Lincoln felt he needed him and others in the cabinet during the war. Had Lincoln served the rest of his second term I suspect the need to appease those that opposed him would have ended. I have long felt that had Booth not taken Lincoln's life when he did we would have seen Lincoln struggle during his second term as his allies during war wanted reward for their loyalty during peace. I think only the war could have kept such a divisive group as Lincoln's cabinet together.
 
Even with the war, 5 of the 7 original picks had left before the war was over.

Very true. I was alluding to the struggles that most presidents seem to have in their second term (look at both the current President and his predecessor as examples). Second terms are very hard and while Lincoln would not have had the restrictions (in those days) of being limited to two terms I suspect that many of his rivals for the nomination in 1860 would have been trying to tear him down as 1868 approached. Those in the cabinet, regardless of time, would have viewed themselves as the obvious "next in line".
 
Did he really say things like lying naked in the gutter and have Little Mac standing on his body

According to Foote Volume 1, he did. My favorite was when he said "There is no need to mount and expedition to search for the missing link, we have a fine specimen living right here in Washington"
 
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Ouch!
Seems Longstreet was not the only one having some problems with loyalty at times. But Lincoln himself said about Sheridan that Little Phil had so long arms, he could scratch his feet without stooping. Must have been a bunch of interesting people in Washington 150 years ago! They must have grown a thick skin there!
When Lincoln said that, and he probably did, you just know he was doing some homespun kidding. The good natured elbow-poking that is done among friends.

Not at all like calling Lincoln an ape, which was not at all an elbow jab.
 
Apparently there was mutual admiration between Lincoln and Stanton.

Shortly after President Lincoln's assassination, John Hay told Stanton: "Not everyone knows, as I do, how close you stood to our lost leader, how he loved you and trusted you, and how vain were all the efforts to shake that trust and confidence, not lightly given and never withdrawn."11 Historian David E. Long wrote: “Stanton would become furious and fly into fits of rage at Lincoln time and time again. Thus many fail to consider the friendship of these two men...they were simply two professional politicians who tolerated one another in order to achieve a common goal. It seriously underestimates the respect and affection they actually felt toward one another.” According to Long: “Their common devotion to the cause of the Union, and their relentless determination to preserve it, created a bond that did not take the form of backslapping humor and thigh-pounding stories amidst relaxed banter that Lincoln shared with William H. Seward. But their hours and days spent together at the Soldiers’ Home, the relationship of their children, the tears that flowed from the eyes of the stolid Stanton when Lincoln took his last breath....these were much more revealing of the true nature of their shared concerns than the obvious and superficial manifestations the president demonstrated with others.”12

http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/inside.asp?ID=96&subjectID=2
 
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From what I've seen he made all other politicians look like model citizens and I haven't even studied him yet.
Have you read Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Goodwin, about Lincoln and his interactions with his Cabinet? It would give you another perspective while you wait for the Stanton bio.
 
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