Sold – Lincoln Orders a Military Appointment, and Secretary of War Stanton Bluntly Dismisses the Order
A spotlight on the real relationship between Lincoln and Stanton, as Lincoln accepts the refusal and blames the messenger.
Lincoln appointed men to high office because he perceived that they would be useful to the war effort rather than courteous to him. When Gen. George B. McClellan was insufferably rude to him, he was willing to suffer the personal indignity if only McClellan would win. His most important civilian appointment shows...
Lincoln appointed men to high office because he perceived that they would be useful to the war effort rather than courteous to him. When Gen. George B. McClellan was insufferably rude to him, he was willing to suffer the personal indignity if only McClellan would win. His most important civilian appointment shows this management principle in operation. Edwin Stanton met Lincoln before the war when they served as co-counsel in a famous lawsuit involving the McCormick reaper. Stanton, who had a reputation for being stern, imperious, hot-tempered and controlling, had snubbed him, and then ridiculed him publicly as a gorilla and an imbecile. Lincoln saw him, however, as honest, dedicated and extremely competent. Carrying no grudges (because, as he said, he “never thought it paid”), he appointed Stanton to be Secretary of War, and it was a brilliant choice. The two men came to respect and even like each other as they worked together daily to achieve victory. Yet there were still frictions, and there has been much conjecture and much written about the precise nature of their relationship.
Stanton looked on the War Department as his fiefdom, and Lincoln had to be careful about how he dealt with military situations lest Stanton consider his actions interference. His letters and notes to Stanton often show a certain caution to avoid giving offense or causing an angry flare-up, and for Stanton’s part it is known that he would sometimes try to ignore Lincoln’s requests. Lincoln himself papered over the issue, claiming “I want to oblige everybody when I can; and Stanton and I have an understanding that if I send an order to him which cannot be consistently granted, he is to refuse it. This he sometimes does.” The renowned historian David Donald wrote that Lincoln, for his own purposes, “pretended” that Stanton exerted a veto over his actions, but that this was “a joke,” and that Lincoln could readily control Stanton when he desired. This is consistent with Lincoln’s statement of Stanton, “I can overrule his decision if I will.”
This endorsement throws a light onto the actual state of the relationship between these two men, raises some questions about authority over the War Department, and provides Lincoln’s response when criticized about it.
On May 5, 1862, Lincoln interviewed Lt. Col. George Montagu Hicks, who presented him with a letter from Gen. John Wool stating Wool’s understanding that Secretary of State William H. Seward or the President himself wanted Montagu named to Wool’s staff. Wool would be glad to “have him appointed to my staff,” but he continued on to say that he had enough members on staff and would need the President’s instruction to appoint more. Lincoln wanted the appointment and ordered Stanton to promote Hicks to colonel on Wool’s staff. “On enquiry into this case I think it due to Lt. Colonel G. Montagu Hicks that he be appointed an Aide de Camp of General Wool with the rank of Colonel as upon his recommendation and assigned to General McDowell. Let it be done.”
Hicks next went to Stanton, who bluntly refused, according to Hicks, raising “the inference that the highest power in this country is not vested in its President.” And Hicks did not let it rest there, as he again visited Lincoln on May 21, 1862, and the following day sent him a message, on the subject of who was in charge. As Lincoln noted with irritation in a memo that day, “This note, as Col. Hicks did verbally yesterday, attempts to excite me against the Secretary of War, and therein is offensive to me. My ‘order’ as he is pleased to call it, is plainly no order at all.”
Of course, nobody would claim that Stanton was in control of Lincoln, nor that Lincoln was actually afraid of Stanton. However, the specific affirmative nature of Lincoln’s request (saying that he wants the appointment) and the dismissive refusal by Stanton, seem inconsistent with the idea that Lincoln and Stanton had a viable arrangement or understanding between them about these matters. Stanton’s action was contentious and his attitude almost insubordinate, yet Lincoln tolerated this and blamed Hicks for the message.
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