Details
[CIVIL WAR]. STANTON, Edwin M. Secretary of War. Autograph letter signed ("Edwin M. Stanton") to Herman Dyer, Washington, D.C., 18 May 1862. STANTON'S OUTBURST AGAINST MCCLELLAN
A very remarkable, fifteen-page, private letter to a childhood friend, responding to press criticism, defending his actions as Secretary of War, explaining Union strategy in the Peninsula, condemning General McClellan and insisting that he and Lincoln are in agreement. He describes the debates within the White House regarding McClellan's Peninsula strategy: "The President reluctantly yielded his own views...but by a written order he imposed the special condition," that he leave behind enough troops to protect Washington. On learning that "less than 20,000 new recruits with not a single organized brigade" had been left to guard the Capitol, and "the Capitol was not safe," Stanton insisted on retaining McDowell's Corps: "When...communicated to General McClellan it of course provoked his wrath, and the wrath of his friends was directed upon me." If he had not held the troops, Stanton asserts "I believe that Washington would this day be in the hands of the rebels. Down to this point there was never the slightest difference between the President & myself." Lincoln allowed some troops to be sent to the Peninsula, "as he was so anxious that General McClellan should have no cause of complaint." Plaintively he asks "What motive can I have to thwart General McClellan?...I hold my present post at the request of a President...I knew that everything I cherish and hold dear would be sacrificed by accepting office. But I thought I might help to save the country and for that I am willing to perish...If I wanted to be a politician...would I stand between the treasury and the problems that are howling around me? Would I provoke and stand against the whole newspaper gang...or every party, who, to sell news, would emperil a battle? I was never taken for a fool, but there could be no greater madness than for a man to encounter what I do for anything else than motives that overleap time and look forward to eternity." He apologizes for writing at great length, emphasizes that his opinions "cannot be made public," and summarizes the main points of the controversy.
A very remarkable, fifteen-page, private letter to a childhood friend, responding to press criticism, defending his actions as Secretary of War, explaining Union strategy in the Peninsula, condemning General McClellan and insisting that he and Lincoln are in agreement. He describes the debates within the White House regarding McClellan's Peninsula strategy: "The President reluctantly yielded his own views...but by a written order he imposed the special condition," that he leave behind enough troops to protect Washington. On learning that "less than 20,000 new recruits with not a single organized brigade" had been left to guard the Capitol, and "the Capitol was not safe," Stanton insisted on retaining McDowell's Corps: "When...communicated to General McClellan it of course provoked his wrath, and the wrath of his friends was directed upon me." If he had not held the troops, Stanton asserts "I believe that Washington would this day be in the hands of the rebels. Down to this point there was never the slightest difference between the President & myself." Lincoln allowed some troops to be sent to the Peninsula, "as he was so anxious that General McClellan should have no cause of complaint." Plaintively he asks "What motive can I have to thwart General McClellan?...I hold my present post at the request of a President...I knew that everything I cherish and hold dear would be sacrificed by accepting office. But I thought I might help to save the country and for that I am willing to perish...If I wanted to be a politician...would I stand between the treasury and the problems that are howling around me? Would I provoke and stand against the whole newspaper gang...or every party, who, to sell news, would emperil a battle? I was never taken for a fool, but there could be no greater madness than for a man to encounter what I do for anything else than motives that overleap time and look forward to eternity." He apologizes for writing at great length, emphasizes that his opinions "cannot be made public," and summarizes the main points of the controversy.