gratified and requested the Bishop to pray,* the hour being 2 o'clock in the morning. A few days later he wrote tenderly as follows to the good bishop who had lost a son:

My Dear Friend:

Washington City, March 26, 1868.

I sympathize deeply with you and your family in the recent dispensation of Providence that has brought mourning to your household. The bereavement, however certain and long expected, falls not less heavily when a loved one is called from earth to mansions in the sky.

To you I will not presume to offer consolation, for you know better than I whence it can come; but I hope it will not be regarded intrusive for me to ask to share your sorrow. With sincere affection,

The Reverend Bishop Simpson.

Truly your friend,

Edwin M. Stanton.

Stanton did not confine the use of religion as a war measure to the activities of others, but was himself a believer in faith and prayer. "I know that frequently during the war," says the Reverend John P. Newman, "Secretary Stanton retired to a private room in the War Department and prayed for his country."

"More than half a dozen times when calling on Secretary Stanton in the War Department," says the Reverend Charles W. Hall, "he led me into his private office and invited me to pray-'Pray for Mr. Lincoln, pray for the country, pray for our armies and their commanders, and pray for me.' His religion got nothing from rituals or church forms. It was not emotional or spasmodic, but a deep conviction of right-thinking and right-doing which included love of country and an abiding resolve to make any required sacrifices in its behalf."

On March 30, 1869, he received the sacrament of baptism from his old friend the Reverend William Sparrow (who, as professor in Kenyon College in 1832, was the guide and counselor of his youth) in the presence of General E. Shriver, General E. D. Townsend, General M. C. Meigs, and several other army officers and friends who had been invited.

*Says Miss S. Elizabeth Simpson of Philadelphia: "My father and Secretary Stanton were very intimate and very frequently consulted on important topics. No matter how great the pressure, the Secretary's room was always open to my father. I have heard him say that when calling at the War Department during the more anxious days, Mr. Stanton would lead him by the arm into the private office and say, 'Now, Bishop, pray.'"

"He was to have been confirmed at the next coming of the Bishop," says the Reverend T. A. Starkey, “and I should have presented him for that second rite, considering him spiritually prepared to receive it; but he died before the Bishop arrived. I was at his bedside engaged in spiritual duties for three hours before his death, which he approached without fear, his great work being finished and his heart ready."

*Although he left Steubenville more than twenty years before his death, he regularly paid pew rental in several churches in that city; gave money to building and parsonage funds, and at one time was a trustee and attorney of the Church of the Disciples. He was for years a pew-holder, though not a communicant, of Epiphany Church in Washington, in which his children were baptized.

CHAPTER LXV.

GRANT'S CRITICISMS-INSIDE HISTORY.

Ulysses S. Grant died in July, 1885. A few months later his "Personal Memoirs" made their appearance. In them among other criticisms of Stanton, may be found the following, in Volume II.:

[P. 37] Owing to his natural disposition to assume all power and control in all matters that he had anything whatever to do with (a) he boldly took command of the armies, and, while issuing no orders on the subject, (b) prohibited any order from me going out of the adjutant-general's office until he had approved it. This was done by directing the adjutant-general to hold any orders that came from me to be issued through the adjutant-general's office until he had examined them and given them his approval. (c) He never disturbed himself, either, in examining my orders until it was entirely convenient for him, so that orders which I had prepared often lay there three or four days before he would sanction them. I remonstrated against this in writing and the Secretary apologetically restored me to my rightful position as general-in-chief of the army. But he soon lapsed and took control much as before.

*

[P. 573] (d) Mr. Stanton cared nothing for the feelings of others. In fact, it seemed to be pleasanter to him to disappoint than gratify. (e) He felt no hesitation in assuming the functions of the Executive, or acting without advising with him. * (f) Mr. Lincoln was not timid and he was willing to trust his generals in making and executing their plans. The Secretary was very timid and (g) it was impossible for him to avoid interfering with the armies covering the capital when it was sought to defend it my making an offensive movement against the army guarding the Confederate capital. * * (h) The enemy would not have been in danger if Mr. Stanton had been in the field!

(a) Stanton, acting ministerially, had "command of the armies," Grant included, without taking it "boldly" or otherwise. The law gave it to him. The United States Supreme Court had decided unanimously that the secretary of war, when acting in war matters, is supreme, in fact is the president; and that his orders and acts, as such, are the orders and acts of the president. To complain, therefore, that the secretary of war acted as the secretary of war, seems extremely childish and is entirely unlike Grant.