Edwin McMasters Stanton was an American lawyer and politician who served as US Secretary of War under the Lincoln Administration during most of the American Civil War.
159 Facts About Edwin Stanton
2.
Edwin Stanton organized the manhunt for Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth.
3.
Edwin Stanton opposed the lenient policies of Johnson towards the former Confederate States.
4.
Johnson's attempt to dismiss Edwin Stanton ultimately led to Johnson being impeached by the Radical Republicans in the House of Representatives.
5.
Edwin Stanton returned to law after he retired as Secretary of War.
6.
In 1869, he was nominated as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by Johnson's successor, Ulysses S Grant, but Stanton died four days after his nomination was confirmed by the Senate, and remains the only confirmed nominee to accept but die without serving on the Court.
7.
Edwin Stanton bought a tract of land at Mount Pleasant, Ohio, from the government and settled there.
8.
At the age of thirteen, Edwin Stanton became a full member of the Methodist church.
9.
Edwin 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.
10.
The youthful Edwin Stanton was removed from school, and worked at the store of a local bookseller.
11.
Edwin Stanton began his college studies at the Episcopal Church-affiliated Kenyon College in 1831.
12.
At Kenyon, Edwin Stanton was involved in the college's Philomathesian Literary Society.
13.
Edwin Stanton sat on several of the society's committees and often partook in its exercises and debates.
14.
Edwin Stanton was forced to leave Kenyon just at the end of his third semester for lack of finances.
15.
Edwin Stanton had hoped to obtain enough money to complete his final year at Kenyon.
16.
Edwin Stanton soon returned to Steubenville to pursue studies in law.
17.
Edwin Stanton studied law under the tutelage of Daniel Collier in preparation for the bar.
18.
Edwin Stanton was admitted to practice in 1835, and began work at a prominent law firm in Cadiz, Ohio, under Chauncey Dewey, a well-known attorney.
19.
At the age of 18, Edwin Stanton met Mary Ann Lamson at Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbus, and they soon were engaged.
20.
In Cadiz, Edwin Stanton was situated prominently in the local community.
21.
Edwin Stanton worked with the town's anti-slavery society, and with a local newspaper, the Sentinel, writing and editing articles there.
22.
In 1837, Edwin Stanton was elected the prosecutor of Harrison County, on the Democratic ticket.
23.
Further, Edwin Stanton's increasing wealth allowed him to purchase a large tract of land in Washington County, and several tracts in Cadiz.
24.
Tappan asked Edwin Stanton to oversee his law operations, which were based in Steubenville.
25.
When his time as county prosecutor was finished, Edwin Stanton moved back to the town.
26.
Edwin Stanton 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.
27.
Edwin Stanton put aside his work and spent the summer at baby Lucy's bedside.
28.
Edwin Stanton's condition continued to worsen until she died in March 1844.
29.
Edwin Stanton had Mary's burial attire redone repeatedly, as he demanded she look just as she had when they were wed seven years prior.
30.
Edwin Stanton regrouped and began to focus on his cases by the summer.
31.
One such case was defending Caleb J McNulty, whom Stanton had previously labelled "a glorious fellow".
32.
Edwin Stanton 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.
33.
Edwin Stanton formed a partnership with one of his former students, George Wythe McCook of the "Fighting McCooks".
34.
Edwin Stanton might have enlisted as well, if not for his doctor's fears about his asthma.
35.
Edwin Stanton's practice was no longer only in Ohio, having expanded to Virginia and Pennsylvania.
36.
Edwin Stanton concluded that Steubenville would no longer prove adequate as a headquarters, and thought Pittsburgh most appropriate for his new base.
37.
Edwin Stanton was admitted to the bar there by late 1847.
38.
Oral arguments for the Pennsylvania v Wheeling and Belmont began on February 25,1850, which was when Stanton was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court.
39.
Edwin Stanton had a blacksmith straighten the curved divider, knowing that the curved divider in Manny's reaper would not conflict with a straight one in McCormick's reaper.
40.
Edwin Stanton was joyed when he examined the altered reaper, and knew the case was theirs.
41.
In February 1856 Edwin Stanton became engaged to Ellen Hutchinson, sixteen years Edwin Stanton's junior.
42.
Edwin Stanton came from a prominent family in the city; her father was Lewis Hutchinson, a wealthy merchant and warehouseman and a descendant of Merriweather Lewis.
43.
Edwin Stanton moved to Washington where Edwin Stanton's expected important work with the Supreme Court.
44.
In Pennsylvania, Stanton had become intimately acquainted with Jeremiah S Black, the chief judge in the state's supreme court.
45.
In California Edwin Stanton would be thousands of miles away from her for what was sure to be months, leaving her lonely in Washington, where she had few friends.
46.
In October 1857 Edwin Stanton finally agreed to represent the Buchanan administration's interests in California.
47.
The "Jemino Index" that he uncovered gave information on land grants up to 1844, and with the assistance of a Congressional act, Edwin Stanton unearthed records from all over the state pertaining to Mexican grants.
48.
Further, President Buchanan and Senator Douglas were wrestling for control of California, and Edwin Stanton was caught in the crosshairs, resulting in a defamatory campaign against Edwin Stanton by Douglas' supporters.
49.
Edwin Stanton had accrued a preponderance of ostensibly sound evidence, such as witness testimony, grants signed by Manuel Micheltorena, the Mexican governor of California prior to cessation, and paper with a special Mexican government stamp.
50.
Edwin Stanton acquired letters that explicitly laid out the fraud, and stamps used by customs officials, one authentic and the other fraudulent.
51.
When Edwin Stanton sent to the Minister of the Exterior in Mexico City, they could not locate records corroborating Limantour's grants.
52.
Edwin Stanton posted a $35,000 bail and left the country.
53.
Whenever Edwin Stanton made arrangements to leave California, his son's condition grew worse.
54.
Edwin Stanton had written Ellen as often as he could as her anxiety and loneliness increased in Washington.
55.
Edwin Stanton criticized him for leaving her in the town alone with young "Ellie".
56.
Edwin Stanton was married to Teresa Bagioli Sickles, the daughter of composer Antonio Bagioli.
57.
Prominent criminal lawyer James T Brady and his partner, John Graham, came to Sickles' defense, and solicited Stanton to join their team.
58.
When Edwin Stanton delivered closing arguments, stating that marriage is sacred and that a man should have the right to defend his marriage against those who chose to defile the purity of the sacrament, the courtroom erupted in cheers.
59.
Edwin Stanton approved a strongly worded draft of Black's response to Buchanan, which denounced secession from the Union as illegal.
60.
Edwin Stanton met a cabinet in disarray over the issue of secession.
61.
However, on the day that Edwin Stanton assumed his position, Maj.
62.
Edwin Stanton was unnerved by Buchanan's ambivalence towards the South Carolina secession crisis, and wanted to stiffen him against complying to the South's demands.
63.
Lincoln's inauguration did give Edwin Stanton a flickering of hope that his efforts to keep Fort Sumter defended would not be in vain, and that Southern aggression would be met with force in the North.
64.
Edwin Stanton lingered in his office for a while to help settle in and guide his replacement, Edward Bates.
65.
Cameron sought out Edwin Stanton to advise him on legal matters concerning the War Department's acquisitions, among other things.
66.
Edwin Stanton met with Potter on his first day as secretary, and on the same day, dismissed four persons whom Potter deemed unsavory.
67.
Edwin Stanton met with Senator Benjamin Wade and his Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War.
68.
Edwin Stanton made a number of organizational changes within the department as well.
69.
Edwin Stanton appointed John Tucker, an executive at the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, and Peter H Watson, his partner in the reaper case, to be his assistant secretaries, and had the staff at the department expanded by over sixty employees.
70.
Further, Edwin Stanton appealed to the Senate to cease appointments of military officials until he could review the more than 1,400 individuals up for promotion.
71.
Meanwhile, Edwin Stanton worked to create an effective transportation and communication network across the North.
72.
Edwin Stanton's efforts focused on the railroad system and the telegraph lines.
73.
Edwin Stanton worked with Senator Wade to push through Congress a bill that would codify the ability of the President and his administration to forcibly seize railroad and telegraph lines for their purposes.
74.
Edwin Stanton relocated the military's telegraphing operations from McClellan's army headquarters to his department, a decision the general was none too pleased with.
75.
Edwin Stanton forced all members of the press to work through Assistant Secretary Watson, where unwanted journalists would be disallowed access to official government correspondence.
76.
In Washington, Edwin Stanton was blamed for McClellan's defeat by the press and the public.
77.
Lincoln was convinced that the North's army needed reformation at the highest ranks; he and Edwin Stanton being the de facto commanders of Union forces had proved too much to bear, so Lincoln would need a skilled commander.
78.
Halleck and Secretary Edwin Stanton, thought Lee would turn his attention to Washington.
79.
Lincoln, without consulting Edwin Stanton, perhaps knowing Edwin Stanton would object, merged Pope's Army of Virginia into McClellan's Army of the Potomac.
80.
McClellan's success at Antietam Creek emboldened him to demand that Lincoln and his government cease obstructing his plans, Halleck and Edwin Stanton be removed, and he be made general-in-chief of the Union Army.
81.
Edwin Stanton thinks that it will succeed, if you move rapidly; otherwise not.
82.
Edwin Stanton did not much care for Hooker, who had loudly denounced Lincoln's administration, and had been insubordinate while serving under Burnside.
83.
Edwin Stanton even gave a rare speech to a huge crowd outside of the War Department's headquarters.
84.
Edwin Stanton organized the secret transportation of thousands of Union troops west by rail.
85.
Edwin Stanton used his powers at the War Department to ensure that Republican voters were not harassed or threatened at the polls.
86.
Edwin Stanton declared that it is the president's duty to sue for peace; otherwise, the president is useless and little more than a figure-head.
87.
The night Richmond fell, Edwin Stanton tearily gave an impromptu speech to the crowd outside the War Department.
88.
Lincoln had invited Edwin Stanton to go with him to the theatre several times, invitations Edwin Stanton routinely rejected.
89.
Edwin Stanton retired home that night after visiting a bedridden Secretary Seward.
90.
At his arrival, Edwin Stanton was told that Lincoln had in fact been attacked.
91.
Edwin Stanton ordered that the homes of all members of the cabinet and the Vice President be put under guard.
92.
Edwin Stanton pushed through a crowd at the Secretary's home to find an unconscious Seward being attended to by a doctor in a bloody third-floor room.
93.
Edwin Stanton found Lincoln at the Petersen House across from the theatre.
94.
When he saw the dying President, several accounts say Edwin Stanton began to weep.
95.
However, Edwin Stanton, who had planned to retire at the end of the war, "was indeed in virtual control of the government", say Thomas and Hyman.
96.
Edwin Stanton ordered testimony taken from those who saw the attack.
97.
Edwin Stanton put all soldiers in Washington on guard, and ordered a lockdown of the city.
98.
Edwin Stanton called Grant back to the capital from New Jersey.
99.
Edwin Stanton had the lower deck of the monitor USS Montauk, which was placed near the Washington Navy Yard, host several of the conspirators, Lewis Powell, Michael O'Laughlen, Edmund Spangler, and George Atzerodt.
100.
Edwin Stanton ordered a bag placed over the captives' heads, with a hole in it to allow for eating and breathing.
101.
Edwin Stanton knew Booth would be lionized in the South, and thought he would not give anyone the opportunity.
102.
Edwin Stanton sent for all members of the cabinet in the name of the President.
103.
President Johnson instructed Edwin Stanton to tell Sherman his deal had been rejected, and that "hostilities should be immediately resumed after giving the Confederates the forty-eight hours' notice required to terminate the truce".
104.
Further, Edwin Stanton accused Sherman of recklessly opening a path by which Jefferson Davis might flee the country with specie Davis purportedly took with him after abandoning Richmond.
105.
Sherman thought Edwin Stanton had unjustifiably characterized him as a disloyal pariah.
106.
Edwin Stanton informed Grant of his rejection, stating as well that he would only listen to orders from Stanton if they were explicitly sanctioned by the President as well.
107.
The only thing acceptable to Sherman would be for Edwin Stanton to declare himself a "common libeller".
108.
The affront touched off speculation that Edwin Stanton was about to resign.
109.
Edwin Stanton, too, considered leaving his post, but at the request of the President and numerous others, including people in the military, he kept on.
110.
The war was done, and Edwin Stanton now bore the substantial task of reshaping the American military establishment such that it would be as capable an apparatus in peacetime as it had proven to be in wartime.
111.
Edwin Stanton presented his military occupation proposal, which had been endorsed by Lincoln, to the President: two military governments would be established in Virginia and North Carolina, with provost marshals to enforce laws and establish order, tasks the marshals had proven most capable of in the weeks after the end of the war.
112.
The President had long considered dismissing Edwin Stanton and replacing him with Maj.
113.
Sherman; the Tenure of Office Bill would have made this illegal without the advice and consent of Congress, which was unlikely to be given for Edwin Stanton, who was firmly supported by and cooperating with Radical Republicans.
114.
Johnson told Grant he intended to remove Edwin Stanton, and give him the War Secretaryship.
115.
Edwin Stanton argued for Stanton's retention and stated that the Tenure of Office Act protected Stanton.
116.
Seward, who still respected Edwin Stanton greatly, disagreed with his removal.
117.
Edwin Stanton returned to the War Department soon after in "unusually fine spirits and chatting casually", as newspapers reported.
118.
Edwin Stanton's reemergence precipitated a tide of congratulatory writings and gestures, thanking him for his opposition to the greatly disliked Johnson.
119.
Edwin Stanton did try to diminish the power of Stanton's office regularly disregarding it.
120.
However, with his ability to sign treasury warrants, and his backing by Congress, Edwin Stanton still held considerable power.
121.
Edwin Stanton, urged by Republican senators, refused to concede his post.
122.
Edwin Stanton, meanwhile, had remained barred in the War Department's headquarters for weeks, sneaking off once in a while to visit his home.
123.
Edwin Stanton watched closely as the trial, which he was convinced would end with Johnson's conviction, continued for several months.
124.
However, Edwin Stanton left office with strong public and Republican support.
125.
Edwin Stanton's health was in a dire state, the product of his relentless efforts during and after the war, and his finances were greatly lacking.
126.
Edwin Stanton rejected calls from his fellow Republicans that he run for the Senate, choosing instead to resume his law practice.
127.
Edwin Stanton's physician warned him against making lengthy speeches as his asthma irritated him severely.
128.
Edwin Stanton grew so sickly that papers related to the case had to be delivered to him at his home.
129.
At Christmas time, Edwin Stanton was not able to travel down the stairway of his house, so the family celebrated in his room.
130.
Edwin Stanton stated that should a position in Grant's administration be offered, he would reject it.
131.
Edwin Stanton used Grant's close friend, Bishop Matthew Simpson, as his proxy to convince Grant of his suitability for a place on the Supreme Court.
132.
Grant bypassed Stanton and nominated Attorney General Ebenezer R Hoar for the seat on December 14,1869.
133.
Petitions in support of naming Edwin Stanton to fill the vacancy on the Court were circulated in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
134.
Edwin Stanton wrote a letter of acceptance to the confirmation the next day, but died before assuming office as an associate justice.
135.
Edwin Stanton remains the only confirmed Supreme Court nominee who accepted but died before ever participating in a single case on the Court.
136.
Edwin Stanton died on December 24,1869, five days after his fifty fifth birthday.
137.
Edwin Stanton's body was placed in a black, linen-inlaid coffin in his second-story bedroom.
138.
President Grant had wanted a state funeral, but Ellen Edwin Stanton wanted as simple an affair as could be had.
139.
Edwin Stanton was interred beside the grave of his son James Hutchinson Edwin Stanton, who had died in infancy several years earlier.
140.
Edwin Stanton was the second American other than a US President to appear on a US postage issue, the first being Benjamin Franklin, who appeared on a stamp in 1847.
141.
Edwin Stanton appears on the fourth issue of Fractional currency, in the amount of 50 cents.
142.
Edwin Stanton appears in the 1905 Thomas Dixon novel The Clansman.
143.
Edwin Stanton was portrayed by Oscar Apfel in the 1930 film Abraham Lincoln.
144.
Edwin Stanton was portrayed by Raymond Brown in the 1939 short Lincoln in the White House.
145.
Edwin Stanton was portrayed by Roy Gordon in the 1956 film The Great Locomotive Chase.
146.
Edwin Stanton was portrayed by Harlan Warde in the 1961 Death Valley Days episode "The Stolen City".
147.
Edwin Stanton was portrayed by Bert Freed in the 1974 TV miniseries Lincoln.
148.
Edwin Stanton was portrayed by Robert Middleton in the 1977 film The Lincoln Conspiracy.
149.
Edwin Stanton was portrayed by Richard Dysart in the 1980 TV film The Ordeal of Dr Mudd.
150.
Edwin Stanton was portrayed by John Rolloff in the 1982 TV miniseries The Blue and the Gray.
151.
Edwin Stanton was portrayed by Jon DeVries in the 1988 TV miniseries Lincoln.
152.
Edwin Stanton was voiced by Fred Gwynne in the 1992 documentary Lincoln.
153.
Edwin Stanton was portrayed by Eddie Jones in the 1998 TV film The Day Lincoln Was Shot.
154.
Edwin Stanton was portrayed by Jesse Bennett in the 1998 Touched by an Angel episode, "Beautiful Dreamer".
155.
Edwin Stanton was portrayed by Kevin Kline in the 2010 film The Conspirator.
156.
Edwin Stanton was portrayed by Bernie Ask in the 2012 TV film Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies.
157.
Edwin Stanton was played by Bruce McGill in the 2012 film Lincoln.
158.
Edwin Stanton was portrayed by Graham Beckel in the 2013 TV film, Killing Lincoln.
159.
Edwin Stanton was portrayed by Matt Besser in the "Chicago" episode of Drunk History, created by Derek Waters on Comedy Central.