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Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton Gives Wartime Pass to Most Famous Preacher in America
Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton Gives Wartime Pass to Most Famous Preacher in America
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Edwin Stanton
Washington, DC, May 1, 1863
Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton Gives Wartime Pass to Most Famous Preacher in America
ADS

EDWIN M. STANTON, Autograph Document Signed, Pass for Henry Ward Beecher, May 1, 1863, Washington, DC. 1 p., 7.75" x 9.25". On War Department stationery; expected folds; short separation on one fold; paper frame and repairs to folds on verso.

Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton wrote this pass for Henry Ward Beecher to allow him to visit Fortress Monroe, at the confluence of the James River and Chesapeake Bay, and Suffolk, Virginia, twenty-five miles southwest of Fortress Monroe, up the Nansemond River. Perhaps Beecher planned to visit sick and wounded soldiers at Fortress Monroe or the Union garrison at Suffolk, which was besieged by Confederate forces from April 11 to May 4. The siege ended when the outnumbered Confederates withdrew.

Beecher never had the opportunity to use this pass. The hectic pace of his preaching, speaking, and editing efforts had impaired his health. In late April, the trustees of the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, where Beecher had been the first pastor for sixteen years, voted to give him a leave of absence for four months to travel to Europe for his health and offered to pay the expenses of his trip. Beecher left on May 30, 1863, on the steamship City of Baltimore.

After spending a few months in continental Europe, Beecher went in September to England, where he spoke to mass meetings in London, Manchester, and Liverpool. Confederate operatives attempted to discredit him by quoting his comments during the Trent affair, which President Abraham Lincoln had deftly defused. At each location, the public initially howled and hissed at him so that he could not be heard. He calmly stood for an hour to an hour and a half until the audience was willing to listen. Gradually, he began to speak, and they began to listen. Demonstrating his power as an orator, when he closed, they applauded him with more enthusiasm than they had earlier condemned him.

He followed these successes by speaking in different towns and cities all over England. Beecher's speaking tour was an important success, solidifying British neutrality and harming Confederate hopes of recognition by European powers.

Beecher later wrote, "I went to England in 1863, not directly or indirectly by request of Mr. Lincoln or of Mr. Seward, and was opposed to speaking there until I was dragged into it by things over there." Lincoln biographer Emmanuel Hertz wrote that "after reading those speeches, five of them which Beecher delivered in England, [Lincoln ] said to his Cabinet toward the end that if war was ever fought to a successful issue there would be but one man—Beecher—to raise the flag at Fort Sumter, for without Beecher in England there might have been no flag to raise."

Complete Transcript
War Department
Washington City,
May 1 1863.
Revd Henry Ward Beecher has permission to go to Fortress Monroe & Suffolk & return.
Edwin M Stanton
Sec of War

Edwin M. Stanton (1814-1869) was born in Steubenville, Ohio, and graduated from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, in 1834. In 1836, he married Mary Ann Lamson (1813-1844), and they had a son and a daughter, though their daughter died as a toddler. Stanton commenced his political life as an Ohio lawyer and antislavery Democrat. In 1856, he married Ellen Hutchinson (1830-1873), and they had four children over the next seven years. Stanton served as U.S. Attorney General under President James Buchanan in the winter of 1860-1861, during which time he strengthened the Administration's resolve against secession. Appointed as Lincoln's Secretary of War in early 1862, Stanton brought civilian-style order to the Army and War Department, improving the efficiency of the armed forces. His earlier success as a Pittsburgh lawyer honed his skills in negotiation and communication, allowing him to work with Congress and the president to ensure appropriate involvement in the conduct of the war by each branch of government, as specified by the Constitution. Continuing in the cabinet of President Andrew Johnson, Stanton clearly articulated the Army's role as a major agent in the implementation of Reconstruction policies. Disagreements over Johnson's position on Reconstruction led to Stanton's ouster and eventually to Johnson's 1868 impeachment. In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Stanton to the Supreme Court, but Stanton died before he could take the oath of office.

Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) was born in Connecticut to Lyman Beecher, a Presbyterian preacher from Boston. He graduated from Amherst College in 1834 and from Lane Theological Seminary near Cincinnati, Ohio, where his father was president, in 1837. That same year, he married Eunice Bullard, and he became the pastor of a church in Indiana. In 1847, he became the first pastor of a Congregational Church in Brooklyn, New York. There, his fame grew, and he spoke on a national lecture circuit. He increasingly espoused abolitionism and temperance, and during the Civil War, he went on a speaking tour of Europe to build support for the Union. After the war, he supported women's suffrage. Although he and his wife had eight children, there were many rumors of extramarital affairs. One with a close friend's wife broke into public scandal in 1872, resulting in Beecher's civil trial in 1875 for adultery, which ended in a hung jury.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 7.75" x 9.25"
  • Medium: ADS

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