The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1874-08-12
SECRET OF TIE GOVERNMENT.
THE STRANGE STORY OF STATIONS
DEATH-IN GLOOM AND D1SAPPo1NT-
MENT HE TERMINATED hts EXIST
ENCE WITH HIS OWN HAND.

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mysteriously that the death of Edwin
M. Stanton, the War Secretary, wa
not wholly attributable to the natura
course of disease.
The idea, however, was put forward
in a dim, uncertain kind Of manner
which made it seem more like sug
gestion than all assertion. BLACK
never declared boldly that Stanton
came to an unnatural end by suicide
but he wove into his writing here
and there black thread which was
suggestive of remorse; disapptint
ment and a bitter end.
What Black intimated 80 darkly
Others have whispered, but in no in.
definite way. There are men about
the National Capitol who in CONVEX.
sation among themselves talk frankly
OF Stanton's death, and the horrible
circumstances attending it. These
men say that upon the very eve Of
the merry Christmas day Of 1859, by
the stroke of a razor, Stanton made
the term Of his existence only ques-
ton Of hours. At the time, the cir
cumstances were known to very few,
and the number of those privy to the
secret has not much increased since,
Outside of the Congressional Libra
rian, and a few we'll trained trusty
servants of the Capitol who guard
secrets as they would their lives, and
outside Of two or three members of
the Stanton family, the story of the
suicide given below, is probably not
known to a dozen people in the
country.
It is matter of history that the
North owes more to Stanton in a GER
tain sense for the final result of the
civil war, than to any other one man.
He was the embodiment and moving
spirit of all that war, ceaselessly Wig.
liant, tyrannical and vengeful in the
fratricidal strife. Stanton would
have been prime minister in an op.
pressive monarchy and as long as the
war lasted he was in a position
which met the cravings of his pecu.
liar nature.
Getting his first taste of national
public life in brief service as At.
torney General under Buchanan in
the latter days Of that administra-
ton, Stanton was willing enough to
take up the portfolio which Cameron
laid down in 1852 and became the
War Secretary. After the first few
weeks Lincoln seldom or never inter-
fered with him. Stanton was virtu-
ally commander.in- chief Of the army,
from that day until the meeting of
Grant and Lee under the apple tree
at Appomatox.
With the habeus corpus suspended
and the ears of the people filed with
the clamor of war, Stanton found no
trouble in usurping powers which ill
accorded with Republican principles.
If the tinkle Of Stewards bell was all
that was needed to send any man in
the States to Lafayette, it was Stan
ton who more than half of the time in
spired the ring. And, besides, there
was right to his hand the Capitol
Prison, the murdetous secrets of
which have gone into the grave With
Stanton and Preston KING. or are
sacredly guarded by the few living
members of the little coterie who
managed the War Department.
It was well for the North that
Stanton was the War Secretary.
Without such a man In that place
the contest might have lasted longer
and ended differently. The war gave
him his mission and he followed it,
regardless of any human influences
entirely Indifferent to all but his
work.
It would have been well for Stan
ton if he could have gone as Lincoln
did. He would have been enshrined
as a martyr, and his countrymen
would have remembered him with
reverence and homage. His work
was done and he only lived to strug-
gle agrinst the turning tide and meet
a fate which no man can envy. He
came out of the war with heart and
soul still full Of the vengeance which
cries for blood. Could he have had
his way, Jefferson Davis and others,
who had differed from him in princi-
pies and who fought for their prin-
ciple as he did, would have been
doomed to felons' fates.
So when the better day Of peace