Edwin Stanton
Edwin McMasters Stanton was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 27th United States secretary of war under U.S. president Abraham Lincoln during most of the American Civil War. Stanton's management helped organize the massive military resources of the North and guide the Union to victory. However, he was criticized by many Union generals, who perceived Stanton as overcautious and a micromanager.
After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Stanton remained as the secretary of war under the new president, Andrew Johnson, during the first years of the Reconstruction Era. He also organized the manhunt for Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Stanton opposed the lenient policies of Johnson towards the former Confederate States. Johnson's attempt to dismiss him ultimately led to Johnson being impeached by the Radical Republicans in the House of Representatives. Stanton returned to law after he retired as secretary. In 1869, he was nominated as an associate justice of the Supreme Court by Johnson's successor, Ulysses S. Grant, but died four days after his nomination was confirmed by the Senate. Stanton remains the only confirmed nominee to accept but die before serving on the Court.
Family and early life
Ancestry
Before the American Revolution, Stanton's paternal ancestors, the Stantons and the Macys, both of whom were Quakers, moved from Massachusetts to North Carolina. In 1774, Stanton's grandfather, Benjamin Stanton, married Abigail Macy. Benjamin died in 1800. That same year, Abigail moved to the Northwest Territory, accompanied by much of her family. Soon, Ohio was admitted to the Union, and Macy proved to be one of the early developers of the new state. She bought a tract of land at Mount Pleasant, Ohio, from the government and settled there. One of her sons, David, became a physician in Steubenville, and married Lucy Norman, the daughter of a Virginia planter. Their marriage was met with the ire of Ohio's Quaker community, as Lucy was a Methodist, and not a Quaker. This forced David Stanton to abandon the Quaker sect.Early life and education
Edwin McMasters was born to David and Lucy Stanton on December 19, 1814, in Steubenville, Ohio, the first of their four children. His early formal education consisted of a private school and a seminary behind the Stanton residence, known as "Old Academy". At age 10, he was transferred to a school taught by a Presbyterian minister. Stanton later experienced his first asthma attack, a malady that haunted him for life, sometimes to the point of convulsion. Because of his asthma, Stanton was unable to participate in highly physical activities, so he found interest in books and poetry. Stanton regularly attended Methodist church services and Sunday school. At age 13, Stanton became a full member of the Methodist church.David Stanton's medical practice afforded him and his family a decent living. When David Stanton suddenly died in December 1827 at his residence, the Stanton family was left destitute. Stanton's mother opened a store in the front room of their residence, selling the medical supplies her husband left her, along with books, stationery and groceries. The young Stanton was removed from school and worked at the store of a local bookseller.
Stanton began his college studies at the Episcopal Church-affiliated Kenyon College in 1831. At Kenyon, Stanton was involved in the college's Philomathesian Literary Society. He sat on several of the society's committees and was often a participant in its exercises and debates. Stanton was forced to leave Kenyon just at the end of his third semester for lack of finances. At Kenyon, Stanton's support of President Andrew Jackson's actions during the 1832 nullification crisis, a hotly debated topic among the Philomathesians, led him into the Democratic Party. Furthermore, Stanton's conversion to Episcopalianism and his revulsion of the practice of slavery were solidified there. After Kenyon, Stanton worked as a bookseller in Columbus. He had hoped to obtain enough money to complete his final year at Kenyon, but a small salary at the bookstore dashed the notion. Stanton soon returned to Steubenville to pursue studies in law.
Early career and first marriage
Stanton studied law under the tutelage of Daniel Collier in preparation for the bar. He was admitted to practice in 1835 and began work at a prominent law firm in Cadiz, Ohio, under Chauncey Dewey, a well-known attorney. The firm's trial work often fell to Stanton.At age 18, Stanton met Mary Ann Lamson at Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbus, and they soon were engaged. After buying a home in Cadiz, Stanton went to Columbus, where his betrothed was. Stanton and Lamson had wished to be married at Trinity Episcopal, but his illness rendered this idea moot. Instead, the ceremony was performed at the home of Trinity Episcopal's rector on December 31, 1836. Afterwards, Stanton went to Virginia, where his mother and sisters were, and escorted the women back to Cadiz, where they would live with Stanton and his wife.
After his marriage, Stanton partnered with the lawyer and federal judge Benjamin Tappan. His sister also married Tappan's son. In Cadiz, Stanton was situated prominently in the local community. He worked with the town's anti-slavery society, and with a local newspaper, the Sentinel, writing and editing articles there. In 1837, Stanton was elected the prosecutor of Harrison County, on the Democratic ticket. Further, Stanton's increasing wealth allowed him to purchase a large tract of land in Washington County, and several tracts in Cadiz.
Rising attorney (1839–1860)
Return to Steubenville
Stanton's relationship with Benjamin Tappan expanded when Tappan was elected the United States senator from Ohio in 1838. Tappan asked Stanton to oversee his law operations, which were based in Steubenville. When his time as county prosecutor was finished, Stanton moved back to the town. Stanton's work in politics also expanded. He served as a delegate at the Democrats' 1840 national convention in Baltimore, and was featured prominently in Martin Van Buren's campaign in the 1840 presidential election, which Van Buren lost.Stanton was a member of Steubenville Freemasons Lodge No. 45 in Steubenville, Ohio. When he moved to Pittsburgh, Stanton became a member of Washington Lodge No. 253 on 25 March 1852 as a charter member. He resigned on 29 Nov. 1859.
In Steubenville, the Stantons welcomed two children. Their daughter, Lucy Lamson, was born in March 1840. Within months of her birth, Lucy was stricken with an unknown illness. Stanton put aside his work to spend that summer at baby Lucy's bedside. She died in 1841. Their son, Edwin Lamson Stanton, was born in August 1842. The boy's birth refreshed the spirits in the Stanton household after Lucy's death. Unlike Lucy's early years, Edwin was healthy and active. However, grief would return once again to the Stanton household when Mary Stanton was left bedridden by a bilious fever. Never recovering, she died in March 1844. Stanton's sorrow "verged on insanity", say historians Benjamin P. Thomas and Harold M. Hyman. He had Mary's burial attire redone repeatedly, as Stanton demanded she look just as she had when they were wed seven years prior. In the evenings, Stanton would emerge from his room with his eyes filled with tears and frantically search the house with a lamp, all the while asking, "Where is Mary?"
Stanton regrouped and began to focus on his cases by the summer. One such case was defending Caleb J. McNulty, whom Stanton had previously labelled "a glorious fellow". McNulty, a Democrat, was dismissed from his clerkship of the United States House of Representatives by unanimous vote and charged with embezzlement when thousands of the House's money went missing. Democrats, fearing their party's disrepute, made clamorous cries for McNulty to be punished, and his conviction was viewed as a foregone conclusion. Stanton, at Tappan's request, came on as McNulty's defense. Stanton brought a motion to dismiss McNulty's indictment. He employed the use of numerous technicalities and, to the shock and applause of the courtroom, the motion was granted, with all charges against McNulty dropped. As every detail of the affair was covered by newspapers around the country, Stanton's name was featured prominently nationwide.
After the McNulty scandal, Stanton and Tappan parted ways professionally. Stanton formed a partnership with one of his former students, George Wythe McCook of the "Fighting McCooks". At the beginning of the Mexican–American War, men across the country hastened to enlist in the United States Army, with McCook among them. Stanton might have enlisted as well, if not for his doctor's fears about his asthma. Instead, Stanton focused on law. His practice was no longer only in Ohio, having expanded to Virginia and Pennsylvania. Stanton concluded that Steubenville would no longer prove adequate as a headquarters and thought Pittsburgh most appropriate for his new base. Stanton was admitted to the bar there by late 1847.
Attorney in Pittsburgh
In Pittsburgh, Stanton formed a partnership with a prominent retired judge, Charles Shaler, while maintaining his collaboration with McCook, who had remained in Steubenville after returning from service in the Mexican–American War. Stanton argued several high-profile suits. One such proceeding was State of Pennsylvania v. Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Company and others in the United States Supreme Court. The case concerned the Wheeling Suspension Bridge, the largest suspension bridge in the world at that time, and an important connector for the National Road. The bridge's center rose some, but proved to be a nuisance to passing ships with tall smokestacks. With ships unable to clear the bridge, enormous amounts of traffic, trade and commerce would be redirected to Wheeling, West Virginia, which at the time was still part of Virginia. On August 16, 1849, Stanton urged the Supreme Court to enjoin Wheeling and Belmont, as the bridge was obstructing traffic into Pennsylvania and hindering trade and commerce. Associate Justice R. C. Grier directed those who were aggrieved by the bridge's operations to go to a lower court, but left an avenue open for Stanton to file for an injunction in the Supreme Court, which he did.Oral arguments for the Pennsylvania v. ''Wheeling and Belmont began on February 25, 1850, which was also when Stanton was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court. Wheeling and Belmont argued that the court lacked jurisdiction over the matters concerning the case; the justices disagreed. The case proceeded, allowing Stanton to exhibit a dramatic stunt, which was widely reported on and demonstrated how the bridge was a hindrance—he had the steamer Hibernia'' ram its smokestack into the bridge, which destroyed it and a piece of the ship itself. May 1850 saw the case handed over to Reuben H. Walworth, the former chancellor of New York, who returned a vivid opinion in February 1851 stating that the Wheeling Bridge was "an unwarranted and unlawful obstruction to navigation, and that it must be either removed or raised so as to permit the free and usual passage of boats." The Supreme Court concurred; in May 1852, the court ordered in a 7–2 ruling that the bridge's height be increased to. Wheeling and Belmont were unsatisfied with the ruling and asked Congress to act. To Stanton's horror, a bill declaring the Wheeling bridge permissible became law on August 31, effectively overriding the Supreme Court's ruling and authority. Stanton was disgruntled that the purpose of the court—to peacefully decide and remedy disputes between states—had been diminished by Congress.