During the campaign, insurgent agents in the North laid plans to bring deserters from Canada and enemies from the South to New York and other large cities where fires were to be set and other desperate disturbances put afoot on election day with the expectation of so distracting public attention that the election of McClellan could be accomplished by stuffing ballot boxes and other frauds.

Stanton, fully informed of these plans, sent military reinforcements to New York and elsewhere; swore in thousands of extra marshals, and took such other precautions that the plot was wholly thwarted. Provost-Marshal-General Fry states, and so does C. A. Dana, that Stanton carried the election for Lincoln, and insisted from the first that he would do so.

As soon as that result had been accomplished, Grant sent a telegram of congratulation to Stanton, and S. P. Chase, who left the cabinet in July, also sent a congratulatory note, to which he received this reply, dated November 19, 1864:

My Dear Friend:

Your welcome note found me in bed, where I have been for some days. It came with healing on its wings, for I am in a condition in which nothing can serve me better than the voice of a friend, and of no friend more effectively tham yourself.

I am better now and again at work, but with feeble and broken health that can only be restored by absolute rest from all labor and care. This I long for and hope soon to have. Our cause is now, I hope, beyond all danger, and when Grant goes into Richmond, my task is ended. To you and others it will remain to restore the fruits of victory and see that they do not turn to ashes.

Thus is the fact again declared from within that Stanton cared nothing for political or official power and remained in public service only for the purpose of crushing the insurrection and restoring the Union.

"His position was very trying," says General Grant, "there being so many politicians in the army and so many military men among politicians, each trying to swerve the movements of the other. I have always thought he managed that difficult combination well-better than it could have been done by any other man of the day."

"Although Mr. Stanton despised politics," says Charles A. Dana, "he was altogether the best politician in the Lincoln administration. He fully understood the temper of the masses; knew what fruit each act would bear and looked to the possible consequences

of every step before it was taken. Still, he kept partisanship thoroughly out of the War Department and used politics and politicians only to help the Government."

In 1866 he was instrumental in calling two great conventions in Pittsburg and Philadelphia to counteract two mass-meetings assembled by President Johnson to advocate "My Policy," and they were remarkably successful.

In July, 1868, the Democrats held a "Soldiers' and Sailors' Convention" in New York simultaneously with their national convention which nominated Horatio Seymour for president. The former convention, of which General W. B. Franklin (one of McClellan's closest friends) was chairman, unanimously adopted, under suspension of the rules, the following anti-Stanton resolution:

RESOLVED, That the thanks of this convention and of all patriotic and right-minded citizens are due to the President of the United States for the removal of E. M. Stanton from the War Department of the Government, a position which the said Stanton has disgraced and dishonored ever since his appointment to that office by his many acts of cruelty (both to the Union and Confederate soldiers) and by his official acts of tyranny, and that soldiers should on all occasions meet him with the same feelings of outraged dignity and patriotism that he was received with on that ever memorable occasion in the city of Washington from the great and gracious soldier, General W. T. Sherman.

Resolutions of this malevolent character, together with the intense activity of the South-eight of the insurrectionary States being back in the Union with voting power-gave Stanton much anxiety. He feared that what had been gained with the bayonet might be lost through the ballot. Therefore, when Seymour began traveling back and forth advising the people to vote for him because the war debt was large and taxes high, Stanton shouted his protests with vehement and lofty eloquence.

Although too feeble to stand during an entire address, he opened the Grant campaign in his native city of Steubenville on September 25, to an immense concourse of people, and spoke as Charles A. Dana says, "with a lift of imagination, and a grandeur of ideas that made his language glow like fire."

General Grant stands this day before you the foremost military commander of the world, with peace for his watchword. Why should he not be elected? What reason has any lover of his country for not voting for him?

If there is a man among you who would blot from the page of history the story of our great achievements, let such a man say, "I had no share in those triumphs; I vote against General Grant." If there is a man among you that would compel the Armies of the Potomac, of the James, of the Tennessee, to be again gathered and to surrender as prisoners of war to Lee, Johnston, Beauregard, and Pillow, let him vote against General Grant. If there is a man among you who would reverse the order of history and bring upon you a reproach and shame never before visited upon a nation of the earth, would have a commander of the United States armies deliver up his sword, humbly bowing before the rebel commanders, let that man vote against Grant, and never again call himself an American citizen. If there is a man among you who would desire to see, whose eyeballs would not burn like fire to see upon the portico of the capital, Lee, Preston, and Pillow, with the Confederate army around them; if there is a man who Iwould see this and would see them win in the New York convention the battles they lost in the South, let such a man vote against Grant and go to Washington on the 4th of March next and behold the Government turned over to the rebels.

Although so wrenched and exhausted by asthma that he could sit up only a portion of the day, he spoke in Cleveland on October 9, more especially to foreign-born voters.

His address occupied only about thirty-five minutes, but his earnestness was irresistible. Several times during the delivery, paroxysms of asthma so choked him that he was compelled to support himself from falling by a small table standing near; yet, to the astonishment of the great audience, he took no notice of these attacks, but was lost in the effort to convince his hearers that it was the solemn duty of every citizen to vote for Grant. Stopping to rest a moment, he requested the presiding officer to read Lincoln's Gettysburg speech. At its conclusion he sprang forward and exclaimed:

That is the voice of God speaking through the lips of Abraham Lincoln! Let that noble speech reach the extremities of this great crowd. I mean that you shall hear it; I mean that you shall adopt its sentiment and declare yourselves now. You hear the voice of Father Abraham here to-night. Did he die in vain? Shall we not dedicate ourselves to the work he left unfinished? Let us here, every one, with uplifted hand, declare before Almighty God that the precious gift of this great heritage, consecrated in the blood of our soldiers, shall never perish from the earth! Now [uplifting his hands] all hands to God! I SWEAR IT!

The audience, with uplifted hands, rose and took the oath with Stanton-swore to vote for Grant and dedicate their efforts to the task left unfinished by the martyred Lincoln! It was a sensational and heroic scene, and created a wide and profound impression.