The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1869-12-25
Death of Edwin M. stanton.

Il
to us from Washington the news of the death
of that heroic and conspicuous patriot and
| public servant, Edwin M. Stanton. Elsewhere
in these columns we give sketch of his life
and public services but the occasion is emil
nently fitting for some passing general remarks,
which we here propose, on the important part
which this extraordinary man so well per-
formed from the beginning to the end of our
| recent terrible and momentous struggle for the
| life Of the nation.
There was crisis in our national affairs
toward the close of Buchanans deplorable
administration, the dangers of which can
hardly be exaggerated. In this crisis there
were four men on guard, each equal to the
demands of the hour, who deserve especial
remembrance. They were General Winfield
Scott, whose wise military precautions defeated
the first intended coup of the Southern con-
spirators, the capture Of Washington; and
Edwin NJ. Stanton, General Dix and Judge
Holt, who-on the retirement of the secession
conspirators, Cobb, Floyd and Thompson, and
in the reconstruction of the Cabinet, which
Buchanan's new advisers, and just in time to
save him from an unconditional capitulation to
the projected Southern confederacy These
three men (Stanton, Dix and Hol) held up the
feeble arms Of Buchanan where otherwise he
would have fallen in his dwelling imbecilty
while Scott, with his hastily collected troops and
improvised defences Of the Capitol and Trea-
sury Department, held at bay the rebel volun-
teers organized and lying in wait in Maryland
and Virginia for the assassination of the
incoming President Lincoln and the seizure
of Washington.
The patriotism and intrepidity exhibited by
Stanton in this crisis marked him out to Presi-
dent Lincoln as his man for the War Office In
another crisis with the retirement of General
Cameron. At this point in our history,
January, 1862, the city of Washington and the
army of Mcclellan were invested by the rebel
army of Joe Johnston, and the Potomac river
by his land batteries was held under rigid
blockade. The national cause looked SO
unpromising that England and France were
itching for a pretext for an armed alliance
''Great Republic and stop to the march of
popular institutions and popular ideas. At
the same time our national treasury, depleted
by Cobb and his associate conspirators, and
left on the verge of bankruptcy by Buchanan,
was threatened with ruin. Thus the prospect
for the Union cause, in a diplomatic, inan-
cial and military view, was dark, dubious and
discouraging.
But in this fearful crisis, as in the first, it
so happened again that there were three men
in the Cabinet, each in his department the
very man for the mergency-Seward, Chase
and Stanton. A war with England and France
at the time when Washington and McClellans
army were held under siege by Joe Johnston,
or at any time in the interval to Lincoln's second
election in 1864, would have broken up the
Union for division among the spoilers; for
did not the Chicago Democratic Presidential
Convention of that year pronounce the war
against the Southern confederacy "a failure z"
1t was imperatively necessary then on our
part to avoid rupture with England or France,
for break with either would have been war
with both. How our Secretary of State,
Seward, kept the peace with them we need not
here repeat. In his humilating concessions
and special pleadings, from time to time he
sorely tried the patience of our Northern
people, but, much against their will, he kept
of England and France.
In the next place, without money we could
not have maintained for a twelvemonth the
| war against JEFF Davis and his cotton and
English cotton loans. The paper money sys-
TEN, organized and put into operation by the
Secretary Of the Treasury, Chase, met the
EFFICIENCY. and in making the banks and other
corporations and the great body of the people
Of the North the holders and endorsers of his
paper he made them an active, earnest and
resistless phalanx in support of the war for
the Union. Thus we may say that il Seward
saved the Union in his diplomatic apologies,
concessions and special pleadings, in keeping
off England and France till the danger was
over, Chase also saved the Union in providing
it the sinews OF war against the most gigantic
rebellion in human history.
But the war, meantime, was only record Of
chaos, waste and disasters waste Of time,
money and men, and fruitful only Of confusion
and defeats. The war remained still to be
organized; and here Stanton, generally recog
nized as the American Carnot, steps in upor
the scene. He organized war on grand
scale. He furnished arms, ammunition, pro
visions, clothing and transportation with
liberal hand in every quarter; but his frs
reward was series of terrible defeats, which
brought the enemy upon the heels Of on
routed armies to the gates of Washington
Then follows hopeful victory or two, an,
then another catalogue Of defeats, which brinI