by place to forswear his old creed of State rights. Such hostility
should, however, be accounted a crown of honor to Mr. Stanton. He
certainly came to the public service with patriotic and not with
sordid motives, surrendering a most brilliant position at the bar, and
with it the emolument of which in the absence of accumulated wealth his
family was in daily need.

Mr. Stanton's observation and wide experience through the years of the
war had taught him to distrust the Southern leaders. Now that they
had been subdued by force, yielding at the point of the bayonet when
they could no longer resist, he did not believe that they should be
regarded as returning prodigals to be embraced and wept over, for whom
fatted calves should be killed, and who should be welcomed at once to
the best in their father's house. He thought rather that works meet
for repentance should be shown by these offenders against the law both
of God and man, that they should be held to account in some form for
the peril with which they had menaced the Nation, and for the agony
they had inflicted upon her loyal sons. Mr. Stanton was therefore, by
every impulse of his heart and by every conviction of his mind,
favorable to the policy which the President had indicated, if not
indeed assured, to the people.

Gideon Welles of Connecticut, Secretary of the Navy, was a member of
the original Cabinet of Mr. Lincoln. He belonged by habit of thought
and former affiliation to the Democratic party: he had united with
the Republicans solely upon the slavery issue. With the destruction
of slavery his sympathies with the party were lessened. The industrial
policy which the Republicans had adopted during the war was distasteful
to Mr. Welles in time of peace. He had been a bureau-officer in the
Navy Department during Mr. Polk's administration, and believed in the
wisdom of the tariff of 1846, to which he gave the support of his pen.
He possessed a strong instinct, but manifested little warmth of feeling
or personal attachment to any one. He was a man of high character,
but full of prejudices and a good hater. He wrote well, but was
disposed to dip his pen in gall. He was careful as to matters of fact,
fortified his memory by an accurate diary, and had an innate love of
controversy. With slavery abolished, the tendency of his mind was
towards a lenient policy in Southern matters and for the promptest
mode of reconstruction.

James Harlan of Iowa was Sec