Metamorphosis

This chapter examines Edwin M. Stanton's metamorphosis after he was appointed secretary of war by President Abraham Lincoln. Stanton succeeded Simon Cameron as the War Department's top honcho after the latter resigned in the wake of complaints about his incompetence and cronyism. Having heard the worst about Cameron, Navy Secretary Gideon Welles, and others in the Lincoln cabinet from Stanton, Christopher Wolcott advised New York bankers not to lend a dollar to the Treasury Department until Lincoln had fired the secretaries of war and the navy. While Cameron seemed fully aware of the campaign against him, he had no idea that his sternest critics included Stanton, his legal adviser. The rest of this chapter discusses Stanton's decisions as secretary of war, including the issuance of an order to arrest Brigadier General Charles P. Stone, his ouster of Colonel Clement A. Finley as army surgeon, and his effort to edge Major General George B. McClellan out of the limelight.