U.S. Senate confirms well-known Democrat lawyer Edwin M. Stanton as Attorney-General

President James Buchanan nominated Edwin M. Stanton for Attorney-General to replace Jeremiah Black, who had moved on to become Secretary of State after Lewis Cass had resigned.  Stanton's confirmation further strengthened the view in Buchanan's changing cabinet that a state did not have the right under the Constitution to secede from the Union.  Though a Democrat, Stanton later served as Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of War and became a Republican.  (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
"The Crisis of the Union," New York Times, December 20, 1860.
    Date Certainty
    Exact
    Type
    Lawmaking/Litigating
    How to Cite This Page: "U.S. Senate confirms well-known Democrat lawyer Edwin M. Stanton as Attorney-General," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/34758.