The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-07-26
A GOVERNMENT SECRET.
THE STRANGE STORY OF STATIONS DEATH = IN
GLOOM AND DISAPPOINTMENT HE TERMINATED
HIS EXISTENCE WITH HIS OWN HAND.
from the Buffalo On. W News.1

From the Buffalo (N " News.1
Once or twice in his CO. tributons to peri
odical literature, within late years. jeremiah S.
Black has limited mysteriously that the death
of Edwin NJ. Stanton, the War Secretary, was
not wholly attributable to the natural course
Of disease.
The idea, however, was put forward in a
dim, uncertain kind OF manner which made
it seem more like suggestion than an asser-
ton. Black never declared boldly that Stan
ton came to an unnatural end by suicide, but
he wove into his writing here and there a
black thread which was suggestive of remorse,
| disappointment and bitter end.
What Black intimated darkly, others
have whispered, but in indefinite way.
There are men about the National Capitol who
| in conversation among themselves talk frankly
of Stanton's death, and the horrible circum-
stances attending it. These men say that
upon the very eve of the merry Christmas day
of 1863, by the stroke Of a razor, Stanton
made the term Of his existence onl va question
OF hours. AT the time, the circumstances were
| known to very few, and the number of those
privy to the secret has not much increased
| since. Outside Of the Congressional Libra
| ran and few well trained trusty servants of
| the Capitol who guard secrets as they would
| their lives, and outside of two or three mem
bers of the Stanton family, the story of the
suicide given below, is probably not known to
a dozen people i'll the country
1t is matter of history that the North
| owes more to Stanton in a certain sense for
the final result of the civil war, than to any
other one man. He was the embodiment
ly vigilant, tymnncal and vengefnl in the
| tratricidal strife. Stanton would have been
a prime minister III an oppressive monarchy
and as long as the war lasted he was in a
position which met the craving Of his peculiar
nature.
Getting his first taste of national public
! life in "A brief service as At orney General I'M
der Buchanan in the latter days of that admin
istration Stanton was willing enough to take
up the portfolio which Cameron laid down in
| 1862 and became the War Secretary. After
| the first few weeks Lincoln seldom or never
nterfered with him. Stanton was virtually
commander-in-chief of the army, from that
day until the meeting of Grant and Lee under
| the apple tree at Appomatox.
| With the habeas corpus suspended and the
ears Of the people filed with the clam or Of
war, Stanton found no trouble in usurping
powers which i'll accorded with Republican
principles. If the tinkle of Stewards bell was
all that was needed to send any man i'll the
States TO Lafayette, it was Stanton who more
than half OF the time inspired the ring. And
Capitol Prison, the murderous secrets of
which have gone into the grave with Stanton
and Preston King, on arc sacredly guarded by
the few living members of the little cOterie
who managed the War Department.
1t 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, regard
less of any human influences entirely indif-
ferent to all but his work.
1t would have been well for Stanton 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 struggle against 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 principles and who fought for
their principle as he did, would have been
doomed to Ions tates.
So when the better day of peace and recon-
citation dawned Stanton could not accept it.
He fought against it to the bitter end, and
overcome by the tide of a public opinion
which recognized our national brotherhood |
Stanton went under, and in despair and gloom
found death with his own hand
His course in the Surratt trial, a d later in |
the impeachment of President johnson, only
eXemplified what is stated more generally |
above. He forced the trial of Mrs. Surratt to
the result it took, and then with heart
which loved Justice without mercy, sedulously |
guarded all avenues for communication or re-
prieve. It was his auxiliary, Preston King,
who met poor Annie Surratt on the steps Of
the White House, going up to intercede with
the President for her mother life. and when
he knew her errand, pushed her away and |
told her she could not see Mr. Jot nson. And
when she threw herself on her knees and i'm
plored for hearing, it was Preston King who
threw her of, and thus intercepted the peti-
ton Of the pleading daughter.
May not the memory of that poor old woman
hurried into eternity from the scatfold, have
pursued King and his chief like a shadowy,
ever haunting Nemesis, until both were
driven to suicide. King, III the New York
Custom-House, with career before hm
which had not cloud in it, filled his pockets
with shot and dropped from pier into East
River. Stanton, witha place upon the Supreme
Bench just bestowed upon him in recognition
OF what h had been, in the midst of the na-
tional capitals gaiety, drew a razor across his
throat and ended his existence.
With the execution of Mrs. Surratt, Stan
part Men began to look at matters more
Calm minds perceived that
the General Government had usrrped powers
i'll war times which must be rec He'd i'll peace,
or the safety of the Republic would be threa at
ened The Secretary of War teit the re stric-
tons more bitterly than the head of any other
department The authority which he love
so dearly was slipping away from him. In the
South, under the force of so-called reconstruc-
ton, he still maintained his rule with the iron
rod. But the spirit Of reconciliation and
traternal reunion was at work, and it was not
long before the War Secretary and the Presi-
dent were at issue.
johnson recognized early the true policy to
be pursued toward the Southern States, and
BY virtue OF his position began to shape the
course Of the administration in the way of am
nesty and reconciliation. Stanton, clinging
% his bayonet rule opposed the Executive.
Then came the clash in the winter of 1868
The attempt of the President to suspend the
Secretary was followed by articles of impeach-
nent behind the prosecution of which Stan