The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-09-13
THE GREAT WAR MINISTER.
Edwin NJ. Stanton, The Boy, the Man and the
Secretary.
Secretary.

fore him but political ruin lie resigned
( ms dffice and Black was appointed in
/ his place, leaving the law department
i IN the government vacant. In addition
4 10 other causes Of alarm FLOYD had
attempted to ship ali Of the heavy ord
/ nance at Pittsburg to the south, and
! was only checked by the uprising OF
the people, who sent a dep0tation to
washington to inform the president
ana 10 enter their protest against the
( movement.
In this extremity President Buch-
! anan sent for Mr.. Stanton and asked
MIN what he thought about the signs
( OF the times. The answer was charac-
/ teristic.
You are sleeping en- a volcano. The
! ground IS mined all around and under
4 you and ready to explode and. without
! prompt and energetic action, you VIII
be the laast president of the United
Mr.. Stanton said the feeble old
! man, ,Ior Gods sake come in and help
me. Inc attorney generals Office is
vacant VIII you accept it?'
the reD9=-.
This is the story of Mr.. stanton's in
Vltation to enter the cabinet as it comes
! from an immediate relative There is
no reason to doubt that 1T is told prac-
! tlcaliy as it was given in family conf
deIlce by Mr., Stanton himself. The
! same APPLIES to the account of what
| tcell place after ne entered the cabinet.
The first day of Mr.. Stanton's in
! cumbency Of the office of attorney gem
! eral he passed in ferreting cut the
! grand larceny of Thompson on the In
! dldn fund When the cabinet met in
| the evening Mr.. Stanton was late in ar
irving. As the new attorney general
entered he saw Floyd pacing the room,
and gesticulating furiously in a tenn
pest and whirlwind of speech AGAINST
! saGGnebody who had cut down his flag
staff. broken down the trunnions of his
! guns, and cut and burned his wheels,
/ and so on. Mr.. Stanton sat down With
out uttering a word and without pre-
I tending to understand what was up.
! When Floyd stopped somebody asked:
| 'Whata do you think about it. Mr..
! ATTORNEY Generaa?'
About what? said Mr.. Stanton
About Major Artersons breaking
UP camp at Fort Moultrie and going
! into For Sumpter?'
" THE most glorious event since the
| Sth C January, 1879 said the new
member of the cabinet. 1t has stirred
the heart of every loyal man in the ma
tion.
.What?' demanded Floyd, an officer
of the army violating his orders?'
What orders?' re'torted Stanton.
/ Did you. Mr.. President. give orders to
/ Major Anderson to remain in that old,
! dilapidated fort. surrounded by enemies
when q stronger one was available?'
Ono said Mr. Buchanan, I gave no
such orders
" Did you know of any such orders
4 being ojVe1 p Mr. Sta ptCiI asked
q No. sir I never heard of it before
said the president
q Then, said Mr. Stanton the man
who gave such orders ougl1t TO be
! hanged on a gallows higher than Ha-
mans
Here Secretary Thompson interposed
20 rebube the insoIence of so new a
! man in the cahirss.t.
Mr.. Thompson, said Mr.. Stanton,
! in reply, I have been here long enough
/ to find out that you have stolen nearly
/ a million of Indion bonds, and expect
to stay here till I see you punished for
it.
! Then the tempest rose and ragged till
midnight, when the meeting broke up.
| The next morning Cobb, Floyd and
/ Thompson resigned. In a single night
Stanton broke the conspiracy in the
cabinet which was killing his feeble
| old friend. There were now two hon
! est men in. the cabinet, Stanton and
| Holt Through their influence. General
John A. Dix was put at the head of the
| treasury"
There is reason to believe, and for
one do believe" said the friend here
! quoted. that but for the bold stand
taken by Mr.. Stanton on that memora-
| bue evening Mr.. Lincoln never would
| have been inaugurated in Washington
! The knives of the assassins were al
ready whetted and he would inevitably
/ have been murdered. But the active
! traitors being driven from the cabinet,
( General Scott collected g, few soldiers
and marines to the number of about
1000. and secured the peaceful inaugu-
ration Of the new president.
When the Buchanan cabinet dissolv
/ ed Stanton went back to his law prac-
tice Nine months later Mr.. Lincoln
sent fer him and asked him to be his
secretary of war. He defended his ac-
ton on the ground that ne wanted
1 Stanton not for his politics, but for his
patriotism and power. Stanton had
| been one OF the first of the northern
| Democrats to take sides against, seees-
| sion. Previous to that time he had
been strict constructionist Of the con-
/ stituuon, as il applied to the rights of
/ the southern states, so much so that he
1 supported breckenridge for the presi-
| dency. He chose the Breckenridge
/ ticket because it was, as he said. the
| only one brought before the country
on the platform of the constitution. as
interpreted by the court of last resort
| The Republican senate was inclined to
hesitate when the president nominated
! for secretary of war man who had
upheld the Dred Scott decision. Old
| Ben Wade. of Ohio. found it necessary
/ to vouch for Mr. Stanton's loyalty be-
fore the nomination was confirmed.
/ But the same devotion to the consti-
tuition which had characterized him be-
fore the war made him the great war
1 minister He took possession of a
dingy Office on Seventeenth street,
1 where now stands the palatial war
navy and state building. There he
toiled day and night
he was 46 years old. in the prime