New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-12-25
EDWIN M. STANTON.
DEATH OF THE Ex-sEcRErARY OF wAB.

DEATH OF THE EX-sECRETARY OF wAB.
The statesman whose loss we are to-day called
upon TO deplore surrendered his life for his country
as truly as the soldiers like Sedgwick and MacPher-
SON. who gave up their breath upon the field of BATTLE
or the martyr Lincoln, who died at the assassins
Hand for his devotion to liberty. Nosingle man, ex-
sept Abraham Lincoln and possibly Ulysses s. Grant
deserves larger share of the national gratitude, or
Vill ill in history honorable place IN the story
81 our great war, than Edwin NJ Stanton
No man, We believe, ever sacrlhced more
completely to the performance o. patilouc
duty every energy of his mind and body, every
hour of his time, every pleasure OF life, ana
every instinct of personal ambition. He killed him
self by fidelity to his work. When the haTassed
merchant or professional man falls victim TO inces-
SAINT overtaxing of his brain and body, mourn
over the folly or the wickedness which makes the
search for wealth and hOnors the supreme goal OF
existence and sacrifices health and happiness in the
vain pursuit; but when a patriot like Mr.. Stanton
destroys himself in the service of his country, we
feel that the manner of his death has added new
luSter to his fame.
There are great works whose proportions can only
be judged from distance, and il may be years yet
before the part which Me-. Stanton has played in the
history of the last decade can be properly appre-
ciated. But the present generation will not pass
away before men recognize him as one OF the great
est organizers in all hsory as possibly the greatest
IF all warmnisters the tremendous impelling force
which gave vgorto lifelong years of war; and gather
ing mp in his strong hand the myriads of ignorant
volunteers and still more ignorant generals nodded
them into the finest army this continent has ever
seen 1t was a rough as well as an arduous work;
and perhaps nc man who was not rough as well asa
vigorous one could have performed it. Rough men
and American etatpsman ever
made more than Mr.. Stanton. He was a quick judge
Of character and when he found that the idols which
the pOpulace wOrshiped as gold were only common
clay, he dashed them down with quick,
rude hand, and broke them to pieces. lie
spared no moments from his public duties for his
private leisure or even for the rest which nature
required, and he would not always spare moments
for the examination of individual rights and wrongs,
or for the courteses TO which men were accustomed
III his office. But when once convinced that pub
lie officer was good patriot and an efficient servant,
he stood by him with the rmness of the everlasting
hills and neither popular clamor nor private en-
treaty could shake his resolution Bayard
himself was not more chlvalrouslY taltn-
full. 1t was upon Mr.. Stanton that
Abraham Lincoln leaned with the most absolute
confidence it was upon Mr.. Stanton that during the
first horror of the assassination the Government for
$50
incorruptible honesty that during the dark days of
Mr. Johnson's administration the hopes OF the
country seemed to depend. Nc wonder that such
man left enemies it will be of his chief titles
TO historic renOwn that among those enemies were
all the enemies of his country.
The universal satisfaction with which, except by
that disloyal faction which can never forgive the
war Mr. Stanton's recent promotion to the bench OF
the Supreme Court was received proved that the
country was not nsensble of its obligations to him
and not ignorant of his extraordinary merits IL
would have been deep qualification to all good pa
triots if in the comparative quiet Of that honorable
position he might have lived to witness the growth
of that renown which must surely be his before
many years have passed; but the war had literally
worn him OUT the stormy administration OF our last
Chlef-Magstrate completed the ruin Of his system;
and by a coincidence which would seem almost poet
ica were it not so mournfu he passes away just as
the work for which he sacrificed himself approaches
its completion and the day OF full liberty and equal
ity dawns brightly under the rule of the inustrious
commander whom he gave to the country.