der the guidance of Wormley, the famous caterer) after he was appointed general-in-chief.* This social revelry exasperated Stanton, who knew that the commanders in the West, although living on hard-tack and coffee and sleeping on the ground, were fighting and driving the enemy at every opportunity.

*Says John F. Coyle, editor of the National Intelligencer at the time: "While he had his headquarters in Washington, General McClellan gave an elaborate dinner with several courses of wine almost every afternoon. I was frequently present and do not recall that at any time there were less than twenty guests at the board-not the friends of the administration or the war, either; such were never invited. McClellan was the head of society in Washington, and society was overwhelmingly in favor of secession. After dinner McClellan and his staff, in full dress uniform, mounted and went clattering up and down the public streets. He had no reason for going, except to be seen. It was ridiculous."

CHAPTER XXII.

AN ERA-CREATING ORDER.

On August 1, 1861, Secretary Cameron made Thomas A. Scott of Pennsylvania assistant secretary by an "order." Under Stanton the order was succeeded by a law-which also amply enlarged the clerical force-Mr. Scott continuing for the time being in office. John Tucker, controlling officer of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, was made second-assistant, to have general supervision of contracts and chartering steamers, transports, and craft for the use of the army. For third-assistant he chose his old friend and partner, Peter Hill Watson, who gave up a law business of fifty thousand dollars a year to accept the call of patriotism.

Having partly reorganized his Department and provided for its most pressing necessities as best he could within a few days, Stanton made a wider reconnoissance. Finding over one thousand four hundred nominations pending on the military list, he suspended all of them, thus inviting the opening assault of a personal warfare that became wide-spread, incessant, and malignant. He "wanted to examine into the matter," he explained, as "merit or honors won on the field ought to determine promotions and nominations" but his explanation was nothing-the friends of one thousand four hundred persons, in addition to the persons themselves, were disappointed and vengeful.

Discovering that arms, clothing, and supplies for the armies were largely purchased in Europe, he said to Secretary Chase: "If these things were purchased at home, the flow of gold abroad would be stopped and our factories lifted from depression." Therefore, in the famous official "Order" of January 29, 1862, he declared:

1. That no further contracts be made by this Department or any bureau thereof for any article of foreign manufacture that can be produced in the United States.

2. All outstanding orders, agencies, authorities, or licenses for the purchase of arms, clothing, or anything else in foreign countries, or of foreign manufacture, for this Department, are revoked and annulled.

Great and far-sighted as this conception proved to be, Lincoln was "afraid it would exasperate our friends over the water" and Seward opposed it as likely to "complicate the foreign situation." "It will have to be issued," replied Stanton, "or very soon there will be no situation to complicate."

That closed the argument. The order went forth and created the industrial era in America, against the ever-increasing pressure of which, throughout the world, the nations are still groaning their protests. It made of the United States a self-supporting and tenfold more expansive, glorious, and powerful nation than it was before. It was one of the most pregnant edicts ever issued by an American officer, and it is one of the few adequate measures of Stanton's greatness.

Part 4 of this same order of January 29 was aimed at corrupt and fraudulent contracts, against which the country was clamoring and which Congress was at that moment trying to investigate. He Ordered:

*

4. All contracts, orders, and arrangements for army supplies must be in writing, and signed by the contracting parties, and the original or a copy thereof, according to paragraph 1,049 of the regulations, filed with the head of the proper bureau. * * Every claim founded upon any pretended contract, bargain, agreement, order, warrant, authority, or license now outstanding, of which notice and a copy is not filed in accordance with this order within the period mentioned, shall be deemed and held to be prima facie fraudulent and void, and no claim thereon will be allowed or paid by this Department unless upon full and satisfactory proof of its validity.

For a time consternation reigned about Washington, and great pressure was exerted to have section 4 revoked or modified. But it stood, saving the Treasury millions upon millions of dollars and making thousands of enemies for its author.

An exceedingly offensive spectacle to Stanton at this time was the crowd of soldiers-privates as well as officers-loafing, lobbying, speculating, and carousing about Washington. "Soldiers must be on duty and the army will now have to earn its living," he declared, and issued orders sending all connected with the military establishment to their respective posts. The effect was so salutary that the newspapers remarked, on January 29, that "fewer soldiers are seen in Washington than at any time since the commencement of the Rebellion.".

A second letter to C. A. Dana, written on February 1, shows that he appreciated the weight of the heavy burdens he had undertaken to carry:

If General Fremont has any fight in him he shall (so far as I am concerned) have a chance to show it, and I have told him so. The times require the help of every man according to his gifts; and having neither partialities nor grudges to indulge, it will be my aim to practise on the maxim, "the tools to him that can handle them."

To bring the War Department up to the standard of the times, and work an army of five hundred thousand with machinery adapted to a peace establishment of twelve thousand is no easy task. This was Mr. Cameron's great trouble, and the cause of much of the complaints against him. All I ask is reasonable time and patience. The pressure of members of Congress for clerk and army appointments notwithstanding the most stringent rules, and the persistent strain against all measures essential to obtain time for thought, combination, and conference, are discouraging in the extreme. They often tempt me to quit the helm in despair. The only consolation is the confidence and support of good and patriotic men. To their aid I look for strength.

The changes and reforms necessary to "bring the Department up to the standard of the times" were executed only at the expense of Herculean effort. Indeed, so extraordinary were his exertions that on the 10th of February he was prostrated by vertigo and conveyed from the Department in an insensible condition. He soon recovered, however, and raced along as before.

Having entered the Department free from entanglementswithout friends to reward, foes to punish, or political debts to discharge-he proposed to hold to a just and independent course regardless of criticism and personal dissatisfaction. But when the victories at Fort Henry (February 6, 1862) and Fort Donelson (February 16, 1862) were credited by the newspapers to the spirit and energy which he had instilled into the military establishment, he was frightened and sent the following generous sentiment by telegraph, which was published, over his signature, on February 20, in the New York Tribune:

I cannot suffer undue merit to be ascribed to my official actions. The glories of our recent victory belong to the gallant officers and soldiers that fought the battles. No share of it belongs to me.

Much has recently been said of military combinations and organizing victory. I hear such phrases with apprehension. They commenced in infidel France with the Italian campaign and resulted in Waterloo. Who can organize victory? Who can combine the elements of success on the

battlefield? We owe our recent victories to the spirit of the Lord that moved our soldiers to rush into battle and filled the hearts of our enemies with dismay. The inspiration that conquered in battle was in the hearts of the soldiers and from on high; and wherever there is the same inspiration there will be the same results. Patriotic spirit, with resolute courage in

officers and men, is a military combination that never fails.

We may well rejoice at recent victories, for they teach us that battles are to be won now by us in the same and only manner that they were won by any people, or in any age, since the days of Joshua-by boldly pursuing and striking the foe. What, under the blessings of Providence, I conceive to be the true organization of victory and military combination to end this war, was declared in a few words by General Grant's message to General Buckner: “I propose to move immediately upon your works.”

To Mr. Dana, Stanton wrote privately an explanation of his reason for sending the despatch: "It occurred to me that your kind notices of myself might be perverted into a disparagement of the Western officers and soldiers to whom the merit of the recent victories justly belongs, and that it might create an antagonism between them and the head of the War Department. To avoid that misconstruction was the object of my despatch."

After he had forwarded it he telegraphed to Mr. Dana that his revised judgment was against publishing the despatch, but it was published nevertheless. On the day in which it appeared the associated press, in reporting a meeting of railway officials and managers at which Stanton spoke, put certain words into his mouth. Charles A. Dana, doubting the accuracy of the report, sent it to Stanton, who, on February 23, replied:

The paragraph* to which you call my attention is a ridiculous and impertinent effort to puff the General by a false publication of words I never uttered. Sam Barlow of New York, one of the secretaries of the meeting, was its author, as I have been informed. It is too small a matter for me to contradict, but I told Mr. Kimlen, the other secretary, that I thought the gentlemen who invited me to be present at their meeting owed it to themselves to see that one of their own officers should not misrepresent what I said. It was for them, and due to their own honor, to see that an officer of the Government might communicate with them in safety. And

*Thus the associated press reported: "Secretary Stanton in the course of his address paid a high compliment to the young and gallant friend at his side, Major-General McClellan, in whom he had the utmost confidence, and the result of whose military schemes, gigantic and well-matured, were now exhibited to a rejoicing country. The Secretary, with upraised hands, implored Almighty God to aid them and himself, and all occupying positions under the Government in crushing out this unholy Rebellion."