Lincoln’s Autocrat: The Life of Edwin Stanton by William Marvel (review)

In Lincoln’s Autocrat: The Life of Edwin Stanton, William Marvel paints an extraordinarily detailed portrait of the life of Abraham Lincoln’s secretary of war. Marvel, like Elizabeth D. Leonard in her biography, Lincoln’s Forgotten Ally: Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt of Kentucky(Chapel Hill, 2011), spotlights a key figure in the Lincoln administration and reveals the instrumental role that cabinet members played in orchestrating the war effort, ensuring loyalty, and consolidating federal power during the sectional crisis. According to Marvel, Edwin Stanton, the humble Steubenville, Ohio, native born during the War of 1812, matured to be a power-hungry, deceptive, self-interested legal mind who brought the federal government into a “virtual dictatorship” during the Civil War’s second year, especially as dissident newspaper editors were targeted (p. 221).

Marvel’s treatment of Stanton is admittedly harsh in light of the author’s purpose to correct and counterbalance Stanton: The Life and Times of Lincoln’s Secretary of War(New York, 1962) by Harold M. Hyman, who completed the unfinished project begun by Benjamin H. Thomas. Hyman, according to Marvel, depicted Stanton in the most shining light possible, overlooking and excusing his administrative mistakes and downplaying his calculating nature. Marvel contends that Stanton’s early development significantly influenced how he maneuvered his way to power in the federal government and in Lincoln’s administration. Marvel provides a masterful overview of Stanton’s youth in Steubenville, the struggles of his parents, his personal trials, especially the death of his beloved first wife, and challenges he faced and overcame in making a name for himself in the legal profession. One of the major strengths of Marvel’s work is how he situates Stanton’s personal life and experiences within the political, social, and economic dynamics of the nineteenth century. Most chapters open with national vignettes giving a clear sense of how Stanton and his family experienced and reacted to economic downturns and political crises like the bank war and the South’s secession. That said, it would have been helpful if chapter titles reflected the chronological progression of Stanton’s life and experiences, instead of being based on vaguely descriptive phrases that ultimately do not match the level of detail that Marvel brings to his depiction of Stanton’s life.

That minor quibble aside, Marvel achieves his objective of reassessing Stanton’s life and demonstrating just how manipulative, ambitious, and intense Stanton was as he built his legal career and became a powerful member of Lincoln’s cabinet despite his “lack of experience and aversion to all things military” before his appointment as secretary of war (p. 150). Subtle criticisms such as these reinforce Marvel’s purpose as he depicts how Stanton used his position to attack General George B. McClellan, flip-flopped on issues like emancipation and the arming of black soldiers to appease whatever constituency was serving as his immediate audience, adopted a hard line on prisoner exchanges to give the North a numerical advantage, and left a legacy as one who treaded heavily and, according to Marvel, unnecessarily on civil liberties. Here again lies another of Marvel’s minor flaws—his narrative does not aim to shift the scholarly conversation on civil liberties and suppression of dissent during wartime that is led by Mark E. Neely Jr., among others. But Marvel’s blatantly critical depiction of Stanton often ignores much of the war’s broader context that led to the Lincoln administration’s restriction of civil liberties. Marvel often makes these issues seem primarily about Stanton’s ego rather than decisions inspired by the exigencies of war.

Nonetheless, Marvel’s extraordinarily detailed and meticulously researched work is eye-opening, providing a window not only into Stanton’s life and personal challenges but also into how nineteenth-century Americans experienced day-to-day life.