Edwin Stanton

[Thomas Thorne]

There are possibly two reasons why there have been no Stanton bios since Thomas and Hyman published their book in 1962

1-The Thomas-Hyman book was so good
2-A serious shortage of Stanton personal documents held by Stanton descendants and official institutions. I remember Hyman lamenting about this in the book. Stanton's friends begged him to keep a diary but he refused. As a result we see much of the world of Lincoln's cabinet thru the eyes of Gideon Welles' diary and Welles bore Stanton no love.

Imagine if Stanton had been as eager to preserve his version of events as let us say Winston Churchill. We might know substantially more about the Lincoln Assassination but that very knowledge might make the subject less mysterious and interesting.
Tom