I would also like to add that after the two men's deaths, the two men's sons remained close for decades.
This would not have been the case if Lincoln's surviving son Robert Todd Lincoln believed Stanton had anything to do with his father's death. Indeed, the opposite is true. Robert was deeply grateful to Stanton for his friendship and service to his father.
Finally, no reputable historian has ever believed the Secretary of War was part of a Lincoln assassination plot.
Oh, and Stanton was appointed & confirmed to the USSC. He died before he could take his seat.
I’ve always thought if I was an historian looking for some unexplored ground, I’d look into the life and times of Stanton. For all of the pies that he had his finger in, historians seem to have passed him by. For example, I’m not aware of a major biography, certainly not a major recent biography. And yes, I think there are some secrets to be unearthed there.
There are reputable historians who have believed Stanton was part of the the plot, but those who don’t call them disreputable. One of those “reputable historians” actually stated that he had “no idea” why the soldier gave his account of the password at the bridge. Yeah, that’s tellin’ ‘em.
Stanton didn’t like Lincoln, and when he was feeling charitable, thought Lincoln was in over his head. They’d met in 1857, when Stanton referred to him as a “long-armed creature”. In a 1861 letter, Stanton referred to “the President’s painful imbecility”. Lincoln admired Stanton’s ability as a lawyer, and as a delegator, Lincoln appreciated Stanton’s ability to get things done. Stanton was utterly ruthless, and despite his legal background (or perhaps because of it) rode roughshod over anyone he regarded as an enemy (personal or, as he saw it, of the country).
Stanton was on the ball when he wanted Lincoln to get rid of McClellan in 1862, but way out of line regarding his approach. Stanton replaced Allen Pinkerton with Lafayette Baker (”Death to Traitors” by Jacob Mogelever), and then demoted him when he learned Baker was tapping Stanton’s own telegraph messages. Stanton, after being blamed for letting Lincoln’s security lapse, recalled Baker to D.C., and Baker had identified and rounded up the historical conspirators within days.
It’s possible that Stanton was completely blameless for the assassination, and that all the circumstantial evidence against him (the missing pages; talking others out of accompanying the Lincolns to the theater; the fact that the sole security man Stanton assigned left his post for a drink, and Booth, waiting in the same saloon, left for his mission when the guard arrived; the password at the bridge; making sure no one eventually executed got a jury trial or was able to speak to anyone) are just an amazing set of coincidences.
> When Stanton died in 1869, Robert Todd Lincoln wrote the Secretary of War’s son, Edwin L. Stanton, that “when I recall the kindness of your father to me, when my father was lying dead and I felt utterly desperate, hardly able to realize the truth, I am as little able to keep my eyes from filling with tears as he was then.”
http://www.abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/Library/newsletter.asp?ID=36&CRLI=116
[One of the “amazing expanding room” images of the very small room where Lincoln died, which is a freebie for those interested, as is the Ford Theater (although I think I read that the Ford was closed for conservation and renovation)]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lincoln_at_his_death_bed.jpg
