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.He enjoyed meddling in Cameron’s affairs and contributed to the secretary’s ejection—which may have been his objective.On January , , he traded in a practice netting fifty thousand dollars a year for a cabinet post paying eight thousand dollars.Ten months earlier Lincoln had said, “Mr.Stanton, as you know, had been serving conspicu-ously in the Cabinet of Mr.Buchanan, faithful among the faithless.There is a common appreciation of his ability and fidelity, and a common expectation that I will take him into my Cabinet, but you know that I could not possibly pursue that course in view of his personal treatment of me.” After months of watching Cameron mismanage the War Department, Lincoln took the same friend aside and said, “I have made up my mind to sit down all my pride—it may be a portion of my self-respect—and appoint him to the place.”22Despite personal differences, Stanton and Lincoln shared common traits.Both men exercised a consuming passion for the preservation of the Union.Although they would often disagree on methodology, both of them were fundamentally honest.Although never patient, Stanton was an excellent administrator and just what the War Department needed.Stanton’s tendency to be aggressively assertive, ingratiate himself to those in power, and push underlings around caught Welles’s attention.He believed McClellan would have been a better secretary of war than a general, and his opinion, though never tested, may have had merit.23As secretary of war, Stanton was entirely different than Cameron.At the first official meeting with the officers of the army, he looked directly at McClellan and said, “It is my work to furnish the means, the instruments, for prosecuting the war for the Union and putting down the rebellion against it, and mine to see that you use them.” The statement stung McClellan’s tender ego, prompting him to write, “Without any reason known to me, our relations.completely changed.Instead of using his new position to assist me he threw every obstacle in my way.I soon found it impossible to gain access to him.” Access to Stanton was never the problem.McClellan avoided him.l i n c o l n , t h e c a bi n e t, a n d t h e ge n e r a l s 94Stanton sized up the situation quickly, writing, “This army has got to fight or run away; and while men are striving nobly in the West, the champagne and oysters on the Potomac must be stopped.”24Stanton faced many problems besides McClellan.The newly composedJoint Committee on the Conduct of the War, organized by radicals investigating the disasters at Bull Run and Ball’s Bluff, encumbered the administration.On January  he went before the committee to form alliances with its members and promised to prosecute the war “with all possible dispatch.”He won over Ben Wade, Zachariah Chandler, Andrew Johnson, and several other senators.Committeeman George Julian was “delighted” with the meeting and expressed “perfect confidence in [Stanton’s] integrity, sagacity, and strong will.” Stanton’s public relations effort netted immediate dividends, loosening legislative impediments on important appropriations needed to support the war.25Stanton also had to deliver on his promises.He moved his long, high desk into a room open to the public, stood behind it while he worked, upbraided contractors for sloppy workmanship, and chastised military officers applying for undeserved promotion.Within a month he brought order to the War Department, cleaned up Cameron’s messes, completely wore himself out, and suffered a slight stroke.He soon returned, his capacity for work undi-minished, and began looking for ways to push McClellan’s vaunted Army of the Potomac on to Richmond.26The Commi