Really crisp engraving-style CDV of Edwin M. Stanton. This one is in EXC condition with minor trims and no damage. This is original to the Civil War era but it is not a "from-life" photograph.

 

Stanton was an Ohioan, an attorney and an ardent Anti-Slavery Democrat. He was possibly the first attorney in history to successfully invoke the insanity defense in a criminal trial. Stanton defended future Union General Dan Sickles when he was charged with murdering the son of Francis Scott-Key. This was a wicked little love triangle sort of thing -- a real "movie of the week". At any rate, Stanton became Attorney General under President Buchanan and in 1862, President Lincoln would make him Secretary of War. It was Stanton who would say, on the night of the President's assassination, "Now he belongs to the ages". Stanton remained Secretary of War in the Andrew Johnson administration and when Johnson tried to have him removed, the President was impeached. He eventually resigned and was soon elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court. Unfortunately, the stalwart Ohioan would die just four days after receiving Senate confirmation.

 

 

 

 

 

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