Did Edwin Stanton Commit Suicide?

Lincoln's Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was a force with which to reckon - assuming that one had the standing to even approach the imperious man - but these forces may have overwhelmed him in death with suicide.

An interesting article published in the Cambridge Chronicle on December 5, 1874 plainly tells the story of Stanton committing suicide. A quick check with CIA's Wikipedia reports that Stanton was in failing health, and succumbed to various pains and asthma attack which lead quickly to his death on December 24, 1869, just days after Congress confirmed his appointment to the Supreme Court.

Both accounts document the incipient event occurring on December 23, and both accounts give the time of death as 3a the following morning. In between is considerable difference.

The Cambridge Chronicle - no relation to this Chronicle - stated the secret of Stanton's death as limited to a mere handful of people. Why it decided to break the news at that late date is a bit of a mystery, but the paper provided a reasonably thorough account, stating that Stanton was normally shaved by his "colored" valet at the former's mansion. After the barber went to the wash basin for water while performing his task, he found Stanton bleeding across his neck when he turned around, having slit himself with the nearby razor.

It is possible that with Stanton's wife's death in 1873, the newspaper felt freed from the shackles of propriety.

The valet sent for a doctor, family, and clergy, but it was all in vain as Stanton failed to recover, ending the life of the man whom the writer thought was a broken man, having fallen from the pinnacle of power, to the lowly position of associate of the Supreme Court.

But we have to ask, Does a supreme court justice, or anyone for that matter, commit suicide in the presence of another, especially before his valet? The story reeks a bit, but not because it is totally without merit.

The article recounts Stanton's war time service, doing its best to paint an even handed picture of his tenure and personality, but gives the impression of the former Secretary being a tyrannical man of justice with no mercy. It cites two examples of his malice, the first of which involved Annie Surratt who attempted to see President Johnson to plead clemency for her condemned mother. Stanton made certain that no one would circumvent the outcomes of the trial he so forcefully guaranteed, preventing the daughter the petition through his intermediary Preston King.

King however, did not live to a ripe old age unless 59 is such an age. In an hilarious moment on Wikipedia, its contributors note

Despairing of success, King committed suicide by tying a bag of bullets around his neck and leaping from a ferryboat in New York Harbor on November 13, 1865.

As you do.

In another example, it recounted Stanton's wars with Johnson, particularly the latter's attempts to implement Lincoln's lenient policies of reconciliation, which led to the president's impeachment when he tried to fire Stanton.

So now we have both Stanton and a key politician, connected to Stanton by the Cambridge article, committing suicide. But does this really make sense? Only a stark raving mad Coincidence Theorist would gloss over the two suicides as though nothing connects the two.

It is our opinion that the two men were killed, and justifiably so. The Cambridge Chronicle does not, try as it might, paint a flattering picture of Stanton. Nor does Dave McGowan

Elsewhere in Stanton’s biography, we find that at various times in his life he personally ordered the exhumation of at least two bodies, one of them being his daughter Lucy, who was dug up circa 1842. According to reports, Stanton kept his daughter’s decomposing corpse in a special container in his home for at least a year. Nothing there that would cause anyone to question his fitness to serve as Secretary of War.

Although it is not the purpose of this Chronicle to delve into the reasons for Stanton's demise, it is most likely for one of two reasons, one of which may have been his treason during the Civil War at the non-battle of Petersburg whose prosecution could have ended the war months sooner than it ended, but for reasons known to Stanton and us, the War Secretary made certain it did not happen. The other reason could have been Stanton's lead in the murder of Lincoln, and its cover-up.

Perhaps the years of inhaling his daughters decaying remains caused Stanton's breathing problems, and maybe his asthma was a contributor to his death, but our suspicion is that someone killed him. And no, it wasn't the valet.

Reference
Wikipedia contributors. (2020, July 20). Preston King (politician). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:14, October 5, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Preston_King_(politician)&oldid=968626689

Dave McGowan, WHY EVERYTHING YOU THINK YOU KNOW ABOUT THE LINCOLN ASSASSINATION IS WRONG: PART I, Center For an Informed America, January 24, 2014, (accessed: http://centerforaninformedamerica.com/anatomy-of-a-presidential-assassination-part-i/ 10/4/2020)

[unknown], Cambridge Chronicle, Volume XXIX, Number 49, 5 December 1874, Cambridge, MA (accessed: https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/cgi-bin/cambridge?a=d&d=Chronicle18741205-01.2.51&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN------- )

Don Thomas, How Stanton Covered  Up Lincoln's Murder Plot, Reason Lincoln, nd, (accessed: https://reasonlincoln.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/How-Stanton-Covered-Up-Lincolns-Murder-Plot.pdf, 10/4/2020 )

Copyright 2020 Tony Bonn. All rights reserved.