etary
by suppressing his report and revising its language, he demanded and
received his resignation, notwithstanding the fact that Cameron was the
most powerful politician in the most powerful State of the North.

He at once sought a new Secretary of War, free from all party
entanglements, who could not be influenced by contractors or jobbers or
scheming politicians, who was absolutely honest and who had a boundless
capacity for work.

Strangely enough, his eye rested on Edward M. Stanton, his arch enemy,
the man who had become McClellan's confidential attorney.

As an aggressive patriotic Democrat, Stanton had won the confidence of
the public in the last administration. His capacity for work had proved
limitless. He was under no obligations to a living soul who could ask
aught of Lincoln's administration. He was savagely honest. At the moment
the discovery of gigantic frauds practiced on the War Department by
thieving contractors, coupled with fabulous expenditures in daily
expenses, had destroyed the confidence of the money lenders in the
integrity of the Government. The Treasury was facing a serious crisis.

And then the astounding thing happened. Without consulting a soul inside
his Cabinet or out, Abraham Lincoln appointed his bitterest foe from the
party of his enemies his Secretary of War. He offered the place to Edwin
M. Stanton.

Perhaps the most astonished man in America was Stanton himself. To the
amazement of his friends, as well as his critics, he promptly accepted
the position.

Senator Winter, whose radical temperament had found in Stanton a
congenial spirit, though as wide as the poles apart in politics, met him
in the lobby of the Senate Chamber on the day his appointment was
confirmed.

He broke into a cynical laugh and asked:

"And what will you do?"

Stanton's keen spectacled eyes bored him through in silence as he
snapped:

"I may make Abe Lincoln President of the United States."

Evidently another man was entering the Cabinet under the impression that
the hands of an impotent Chief Magistrate needed strengthening. The
merest glance at this man's burly thick set body, his big leonine head
with its shock of heavy black hair, long and curling, his huge grizzly
beard and full resolute lips, was enough to convince the most casual
observer that he could be a dangerous enemy or a powerful ally.

The President was warned of this appointment, but his confidence was
unshaken. His reply was a