Stanton, Edwin McMasters

Life Span
to
    Full name
    Edwin McMasters Stanton
    Place of Birth
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    North
    Origins
    Free State
    No. of Spouses
    2
    No. of Children
    6
    Family
    David Stanton (father), Lucy Norman (mother), Mary A. Lamson (first wife, 1836), Ellen Hutchison (second wife, 1856)
    Education
    Other
    Other Education
    Kenyon College, OH
    Occupation
    Politician
    Attorney or Judge
    Relation to Slavery
    White non-slaveholder
    Church or Religious Denomination
    Quakers (Society of Friends)
    Political Parties
    Democratic
    Republican
    Southern Democratic (1860)
    Government
    Buchanan Administration (1857-61)
    Lincoln Administration (1861-65)
    Johnson Administration (1865-69)
    Local government

    Edwin McMasters Stanton, Election of 1860 & Secession Crisis (American National Biography)

    Scholarship
    When the Democratic party split on the sectional issue in 1860, Stanton followed Buchanan and Black in supporting John C. Breckinridge, the presidential nominee of the southern Democrats, because he considered Breckinridge the only candidate capable of preserving the Union. During a cabinet shake-up in December 1860, Black became secretary of state, and Buchanan appointed Stanton to replace him as attorney general. Throughout the closing months of Buchanan's term, Stanton strove forcefully to preserve the Union. In the cabinet, he and Black constantly pressured the vacillating president to adopt a strong position against secession and to retain control of Fort Sumter and other forts along the southern coastline. Moreover, Stanton secretly passed information on cabinet deliberations to Senator William H. Seward and other Republicans in Congress. During his brief tenure as attorney general, Stanton did as much as anyone in the administration to stiffen Buchanan's stand and resist the secessionist surge.
    William B. Skelton, "Stanton, Edwin McMasters," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-00942.html.

    Edwin McMasters Stanton, Secretary of War (American National Biography)

    Scholarship
    As secretary of war, Stanton became increasingly disillusioned with his erstwhile friend McClellan, who had remained ensconced in the Washington defenses since the summer of 1861 and showed little inclination to take the offensive against the Confederate forces in Virginia. In March 1862 Stanton and other cabinet members convinced Lincoln to remove McClellan as commanding general of the entire army, though McClellan continued to command the Army of the Potomac. For several months in the spring and early summer of 1862, Lincoln and Stanton performed the role of commanding general. The two civilians pressured McClellan into launching his Peninsula campaign, personally directed the capture of Norfolk, and devised a nearly successful plan to trap Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's army in the Shenandoah Valley. In a controversial move, however, Stanton suspended recruiting in early April in order to reorganize the recruiting service--and in the apparent belief that the war would soon be over. Because of this step, as well as the administration's decision to detain Major General Irvin McDowell's corps as a shield for Washington, D.C., McClellan and his Democratic supporters claimed that the secretary of war had withheld essential reinforcements from the Peninsula offensive, contributing to its failure. While these charges were unfounded--McClellan's army strongly outnumbered the Confederates throughout the campaign--Stanton and McClellan remained bitter enemies, each calling for the removal of the other, until Lincoln finally relieved McClellan of command in November 1862.
    William B. Skelton, "Stanton, Edwin McMasters," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-00942.html.
    Date Event
    Congressman Daniel Sickles of New York murders Philip Barton Key in the street in Washington D.C.
    Congressman Daniel Sickles is indicted for murder in Washington D.C. in the shooting of Philip Barton Key
    The trial of Congressman Daniel Sickles for the murder of Philip Barton Key begins in Washington D.C.
    - The murder trial of Congressman Daniel Sickles of New York continues in Washington D.C.
    - The murder trial of Congressman Daniel Sickles of New York continues in Washington D.C.
    - The trial of Daniel Sickles for the murder of Philip Barton Key continues in Washington D.C.
    The trial of Daniel Sickles for the murder of Philip Barton Key continues in Washington D.C.
    Congressman Daniel Sickles is acquitted in his trial for the murder of Philip Barton Key
    U.S. Senate confirms well-known Democrat lawyer Edwin M. Stanton as Attorney-General
    Secretary of War Simon Cameron resigns and is appointed minister to Russia
    U.S. Senate confirms Edwin M. Stanton's nomination as Secretary of War on a vote of 36-2
    The U.S. Senate votes 26-14 to confirm Simon Cameron as the new ambassador to Russia
    Secretary of War E.M. Stanton orders appointment of Union commissioners to visit Southern prisons
    Brigadier General Charles Pomeroy Stone, USA, arrested in his Washington hotel room and imprisoned
    The War Department takes over all telegraph communication in the United States
    Secretary of War Edwin Stanton appoints a special commission to investigate fraud in Army contracts
    President Lincoln forms two new Army Departments in the South
    Friends of imprisoned Brigadier General Charles Stone seek aid from the Massachusetts Legislature
    The War Department suspends military recruitment across the North
    President Lincoln visits General McClellan's headquarters at Fredericksburg, Virginia
    The War Department reopens military recruitment across the North
    Colonel F.G. D'Ustassy of the 39th New York sentenced to a year in Sing Sing for fraud and embezzlement
    Regional army commander Ambrose Burnside orders the closing of the Chicago Times for disloyalty
    In Illinois, the Chicago Times reopens after its brief military shutdown
    The War Department decides that Generals Fremont and McClellan outrank General Benjamin Butler
    President Lincoln dies from the head wound John Wilkes Booth inflicted eight hours before
    At the War Department, Secretary Stanton announced large rewards for the capture of the Lincoln conspirators
    Secretary Edwin Stanton intervenes to ensure African-American participation in New York's funeral procession
    On Secretary of War Stanton's orders, troops surround Ford's Theater and prevent its re-opening
    In Washington, the War Department purchases Ford's Theater and begins to convert it as an office building
    The Radical Republican former Congressman Henry Winter Davis is buried in Baltimore, Maryland
    President Johnson dismisses his critic, Jane Grey Swisshelm, from her War Department job
    Ex-Confederate General George Pickett reaches out to his old West Point friend U.S. Grant for amnesty
    The Freedmen's Bureau halts the free issue of rations to refugees and freedmen across the South.
    The U.S. Supreme Court rejects Georgia's challenge to the Military Reconstruction Acts.
    Chicago Style Entry Link
    “A Page of Political Correspondence: Unpublished Letters of Mr. Stanton to Mr. Buchanan.” North American Review 129 (November 1879): 473-483. view record
    Coddington, Edwin B. "Pennsylvania Prepares For Invasion, 1863." Pennsylvania History 31, no. 2 (1964): 157-175. view record
    Simpson, Brooks D. Let Us Have Peace: Ulysses S. Grant and the Politics of War and Reconstruction, 1861-1868. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991. view record
    Trefousse, Hans L. Impeachment of a President: Andrew Johnson, the Blacks, and Reconstruction. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1975. view record
    How to Cite This Page: "Stanton, Edwin McMasters," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/6628.