Edward McMasters Stanton served as U.S. attorney general from 1860 to 1861 under President James Buchanan. Buchanan, by then a lame duck president, appointed Stanton in hopes of convincing the southern states not to secede from the Union because of the election of Abraham Lincoln. Stanton went on to serve in the cabinets of Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, drawing controversy each time he served. His bid to become a Supreme Court justice was only prevented by his untimely death.
Stanton was born on December 19, 1814 in Steubenville, Ohio. After attending Kenyon College he decided to become a lawyer. Like most attorneys of his day, Stanton served a legal apprenticeship with a local Ohio attorney. Stanton performed clerical duties, researched the law and received tutoring from the attorney in the firm. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1836 and set up a solo practice in a small Ohio town. After serving as the local prosecutor, Stanton served as the reporter of the decisions of the Ohio Supreme Court for five years. However, by 1847 he had moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to practice law.
Stanton specialized in federal court litigation and made a name for himself as a skillful advocate. By 1856 he had moved his practice to Washington D.C., so he could be closer to the U.S. Supreme Court. A Democrat, Stanton became involved in politics and made many useful connections in the capitol city. These relationships help explain why President Buchanan asked Stanton to serve as attorney general in December 1860. With the election of Lincoln the month before, Southern states threatened to secede if Lincoln took office in March 1861. They feared that Lincoln would seek the repeal of slavery and would destroy the traditions of the South. Buchanan, although pro-slavery, did not want the states to secede. Stanton was anti-slavery yet worked with the rest of the cabinet to prevent secession. As the weeks moved on, however, Stanton sought to stiffen Buchanan's resolve and remove Union troops from Fort Sumter, which was on an island outside of the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina. Stanton also sought to ingratiate himself with the incoming president by leaking information to key Republicans. During this period Stanton did virtually nothing that was associated with the duties of attorney general, serving instead as a presidential adviser.
When the southern states seceded in 1861, Stanton remained loyal to the Union. In 1862, President Lincoln appointed him secretary of war, a position he held until the end of the war. Stanton was an effective administrator who, like Lincoln, demanded that Union commanders fight more aggressively. Following Lincoln's assassination in 1865, Stanton helped prosecute the conspirators. Although President Andrew Johnson kept Stanton in his cabinet, Stanton soon proved controversial by abandoning Johnson's conciliatory policies toward the South. Again he proved disloyal by working with congressional Radical Republicans on harsh Reconstruction policies. Faced with disloyalty, Johnson demanded he resign. Stanton refused, claiming a federal law only forced his removal if the Senate consented.
Johnson ignored the law and appointed a successor. These events formed one of the impeachment charges leveled against Johnson. After the Senate acquitted Johnson in 1868, Stanton finally conceded and resigned. In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Stanton to the Supreme Court, but he died on December 24, 1869 in Washington, D.C., before assuming the position.
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