Summary: Lincoln’s future Secretary of War foresees secession.
STANTON, EDWIN M. Autograph Letter Signed to Dr. Joseph P. Gazzam, Washington, D.C., April 29, 1860. 3 pp. 7¾ x 9¾”.
Inventory# 21307 $2,750
At the start of the 1860 presidential campaign, Edwin Stanton writes presciently to an abolitionist friend that entrenched sectional hostilities and rising passions over slavery have made compromise impossible. As he pens his letter, the Democratic National Convention in Charleston is on the verge of collapsing amid bitter factional disputes.
Complete Transcript:
“Washington April 29, 1860
My dear friend
Your letter gave me great pleasure and although your health has not been so thoroughly restored as I had hoped it would have been by this time yet I trust that advancing Spring may mark a perfect restoration. Your isolation in a great mart like St Louis I can understand and sympathise with you in. That is the great source of doubt I had as to the proposed change of residence. Aside from the converse and intercourse with old friends & companions, accustomed objects seem to hold conversation with us, and give employment to our thoughts & feelings, while new scenes & objects, especially if we have no particular interest with them, weary & disturb the mind especially in a feeble state of health. An active and laborious life moreover like yours has been cannot subside into a state of inactivity. I think if you would engage in some work of investigation either of professional, or historical nature or of Literature it would give you a pleasing employment and much comfort. If I were near you it would be my aim to start you upon some such track. I wish it were so that with "the children" as you term them the old home were again occupied. I would then look forward with great pleasure to stated meetings occasionally, as I should be called to Pittsburg, but there is no prospect of my ever getting so far west as St Louis.
Affairs at Washington remain about the same as when you were here. Public interest is at this moment directed towards Charleston and there seems just now to be much probability of your secession theory being realized. I do not see how the discordant Elements there engaged in conflict can be harmonized– and a breach there must be followed by a general rupture of political relations among the states. If it were a mere division of sentiments a new "Compromise" would be the nostrum. But it is a contest of passion, ambitious interests, and all the Elements that in the past history of man have engendered civil dissensions beyond compromise or reconciliation.
You have no doubt noticed the valiant challenge of Gov. Walker to the Attorney General. – all about the Kansas letter. This has been the subject of a good deal of merriment here.
Mrs Stanton and the children are still at Pittsburg. Her health has been very much broken and I feel very solicitous concerning it especially as since your departure there is no one upon whom I can rely. I expect to go for her in a few days. Doctor Stoll always enquires kindly after you when we meet. I shall be delighted to hear from you often. Give my regards to Breading[?] & his wife & believe me to be ever Truly Yours Edwin M Stanton
[Docketed vertically on left margin of p. 1]
Letter to Dr. Joseph P. Gazzam of Pittsburgh Pa”
Historical Background:
In the spring of 1860, the nation was already divided into opposing factions over the issue of slavery—and the threat of secession was foremost in everyone’s mind, North and South. As Stanton acknowledges, no compromise was possible when “a contest of passion, ambitious interests, and civil dissensions” gripped the country. Stanton, a lawyer in Washington, D.C., shares with his Pittsburgh abolitionist friend Dr. Joseph P. Gazzam the public opinion that Charleston is the city to be watched. Shortly after Lincoln’s victory in the presidential election, South Carolina became the first of seven Southern states to secede on December 20, 1860. On the same day Stanton was appointed U.S. Attorney General by President Buchanan, when Jeremiah Black left the position to become Secretary of State.
Stanton’s comment about the Kansas letter probably refers to the struggles in “Bloody Kansas” by proslavery and Free State factions over the admission of Kansas to the Union. Robert J. Walker, a prominent politician, had served as governor of the Kansas Territory in 1857 but was compelled to resign because his views were not sufficiently proslavery. Walker was an ardent expansionist, and the cause of “merriment” may have been related to his widely publicized 1844 book supporting the annexation of Texas, which may have conflicted with his arguments to the present Attorney General about the admission of Kansas.
Edwin M. Stanton (1814-1869) served as U.S. Attorney General under President Buchanan in the winter of 1860-1861, during which he tried to strengthen the Administration’s resolve against secession. Appointed as Lincoln’s Secretary of War in early 1862, Stanton brought civilian-style order to the Army and War Department while at the same time improving the efficiency of the armed forces. His earlier success as a Pittsburgh lawyer honed his skills in negotiation and communication, allowing him to work with Congress and the president to ensure appropriate involvement in the conduct of the war by each branch of government, as specified by the Constitution. Continuing in the cabinet of President Andrew Johnson, Stanton clearly articulated the Army’s role as a major implementer of Reconstruction policies. Disagreements over Johnson’s position on Reconstruction led to Stanton’s ouster and eventually to Johnson’s impeachment in 1868.
Dr. Gazzam was an abolitionist who gave medical training to African-Americans in Pittsburgh.
