In January 1862 Lincoln appointed
Edwin Stanton Secretary of War. Everyone, including Stanton, was astonished at
his appointment. After all, Stanton had repeatedly vilified this “imbecilic” President,
this “original gorilla” [Darwin’s 'Origin of Species' had just been published
in 1859]. Lincoln knew all this, of course, but had put that aside. He never
carried a grudge, he said later, because it didn't pay. Stanton was a Union man
through and through, he was a prodigious worker and he was a wizard as an
administrator - and those skills impelled Lincoln to promote him. With time it
was clear the appointment was a stroke of genius.
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