EDWIN M. STANTON.

DWIN M. STANTON was born at Steubenville, Ohio, about the year 1817.

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study of law in Steubenville, and rapidly rose to distinction in his profession, which he practised for several years in Ohio. In 1848 he removed to Pittsburgh, Pa., where his energy and excellence as a lawyer soon won for him an exalted position. He here conducted, with signal success, the case involving the Wheeling Bridge controversy, wherein, for the first time, the brilliancy of his talents received a national recognition.

With the instinct of a lawyer and the zeal of an American, he had early turned his attention to politics. Though educated as a Whig, he began his career as an ultra Democrat; and there were few of the leading issues of the day wherein the weight of his opinion did not leave a legible impress. At the commencement of President Buchanan's administration, he was selected to represent the Government in an important land case in California. Here again he was successful. He then commenced to practise law at the national capital, and shortly afterward received the appointment of Attorney-General.

At the close of Mr. Buchanan's term of office, Mr. Stanton withdrew to private life and the practice of his profession in the State of Pennsylvania; whence, however, at the opening of the battle-year of 1862, he was appointed by Mr. Lincoln to supersede Mr. Cameron as Secretary of War.

His nomination to this important office was unanimously hailed as a presage of vigor and success by the war-favoring Democratic press. The old partisan lines had remained salient until now, when the new appointment was received as an indication that at last the blatant rebellion was to become acquainted with that desideratum of freedom-lovers, a united North. So soon as his appointment was confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Stanton grasped the reins of his difficult trust with characterisuc vigor.

But one of his primary measures was inspired by humanity, evinced in the issue of the following:

"This Department recognizes as the first of its duties to take measures for the relief of the brave men who, having imperilled their lives in the military service of the Government, are now prisoners and captives. It is, therefore,

ordered, that two Commissioners be appointed to visit the city of Richmond, in Virginia, and wherever else prisoners belonging to the army of the United States may be held, and there take such measures as may be needful to provide for the wants and contribute to the comfort of such prisoners, at the expense of the United States, and to such extent as may be permitted by the authorities under whom such prisoners are held."

Under this Order, the Rev. Bishop Ames and the Hon. Hamilton Fish were appointed as Commissioners.

The splendid success of Fort Donelson closed the winter which had so gloomily set in, and the victorious carnage of Shiloh opened the spring, while the annual swallows were winging northward like harbingers of peace. And in April, 1862, the Secretary of War ordered that the chaplains of every regiment in the armies of the United States should, on "the first Sunday after receipt of the Order, give thanks to the Almighty for the great victories achieved by our armies, and invoking the continuance of his aid."

He also tendered the thanks and congratulations of the Department to MajorGeneral Halleck, and other generals, and to the armies under their command, for their gallant and meritorious services.

The acts of Secretary Stanton are matters of history which must be freshly and indelibly fixed in the minds of his fellow-countrymen. And yet they will appear more vividly when the scroll whereon they are inscribed is further removed from our inspection; for if the hues of the colorist are brightest when fresh, the yellowing hand of time alone can accord to them that golden tone which bespeaks the impress of the master-hand. But some of the more important measures of our subject may be fittingly introduced or sketched, as bearing strongly upon the progress of events.

Toward the close of the autumn of 1863, we seemed threatened with hostilities in a quarter unexpectedly remote from that to which we had bent our ears for the boom of rebel guns. A large number of rebel prisoners were then, as now, confined on Johnson's Island, Lake Erie. A conspiracy, or supposed conspiracy, among them, came to light, in which it appeared that schemes were in operation, in British America, having for their object the forcible release of these prisoners, and the destruction of Ogdensburgh and Buffalo. The information was derived from the Governor-General of Canada, through Lord Lyons, the British Minister at Washington. Secretary Stanton promptly advised the threatened cities and the other lake ports of the information received. While expressing the intention of the Government to use every exertion in case of an attack from Canada, he did not neglect to recommend and urge the utmost activity and vigilance on the part of the local authorities, at the same time suggesting a course of rigid inspection with regard to the character of all departing and incoming vessels.

If our Northern border was really saved from rebel vengeance on this occasion, much of the credit must be apportioned to the promptitude of our vigilant Secretary of War.

The peculations of army contractors next engaged his attention. Swindlers on a grand scale usually have a much better chance than their humbler brethren of the thimble-rig and special-confidence school; but in this instance, one of the former gentlemen, who had been amusing himself by selling adulterated coffee to the Government, was retired to the lonely precincts of the Albany Penitentiary. A similar energy was displayed by the Secretary in almost every thing relating to his Department.

In his Annual Report for the year 1863, the courage, devotion, patriotism, and brilliant achievements of the National armies are feelingly eulogized. As to the war-levying resources of the country, whereas, "at the beginning of the war," he remarks, "we were compelled to rely upon foreign countries for the supply of nearly all our arms and munitions, now all these things are manufactured at home, and we are independent of foreign countries, not only for the manufacture, but also for the materials of which they are composed."

Another citation-that respecting the Military Telegraph-deserves to be made. He says:

"On the first day of July, 1862, there were three thousand five hundred and seventy-one miles of land and submarine lines in working order. During the fiscal year, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-five miles of land and submarine line were constructed, making the total number of miles of land and submarine military telegraph lines in operation during the year, five thousand three hundred and twenty-six, being a length of line sufficient to girdle more than one fifth of the circumference of the globe. By close estimate, it appears that at least one million two hundred thousand telegrams have been sent and received over the military lines in operation during the fiscal year ending June, 1863, being at the rate of about three thousand per diem. These messages varied in length from ten to one thousand words and upward, and generally were of an urgent or important character."

Mr. Stanton still presides at the head of the War Department. At the opening of the present year, (1864,) some efforts were made to have him removed from the stormy helm he has grasped so firmly.. Very probably the motive of these efforts was wholly partisan. But few, however, even of the opponents of Mr. Stanton can truthfully withhold from him that respect which is due to promptness of decision, vigor of deed, and probity of purpose. And, at the present writing, he is still, very probably, a popular man.

JOSEPH HOOKER.

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OSEPH HOOKER was born in 1815, in Hadley, Massachusetts, and is a lineal descendant of Thomas Hooker, the Puritan pioneer who, in 1636, led a band of one hundred settlers through a dense wilderness to found the city of Hartford and the colony of Connecticut.

His mother, whose maiden name was Seymour, was of Puritan stock also, so that the iron will, unbending fortitude, and bold love of danger and adventure, which characterize the present Major-General, may all be distinctly traced to the genuine Puritan blood that flows in his veins.

General Hooker manifested from childhood a fondness for study, which was first cultivated at the Hopkins Academy, in his native town, and afterward at the Military Academy at West-Point, where he was admitted as a cadet in his eighteenth year, and graduated in 1837, ranking twenty-eighth in a class of fifty-one members. He was at once appointed Second Lieutenant in the First artillery, and in November, 1838, was promoted to First Lieutenant in the same regiment. In 1841, Lieutenant Hooker was appointed Adjutant at the Military Academy, and the same year Adjutant of his regiment, which position he held until 1846. During the Mexican war, Lieutenant Hooker served for some time with great distinction on General Scott's staff, as Assistant Adjutant-General, receiving for meritorious conduct the successive brevets of Captain, Major, and LieutenantColonel. On the twenty-ninth of October, 1848, he was appointed Captain of the First regiment of artillery, and on the same day resigned his regimental position, retaining, however, his position as Assistant Adjutant-General with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. At the close of the war he was ordered to duty in Cali

fornia.

In 1853, he resigned his position as Assistant Adjutant-General, and purchased a farm in Sonoma County, California, where he remained till 1855, superintending in that year the construction of the national road from California to Oregon, a duty in which he was engaged for a period of two years.

At the breaking out of the rebellion, Colonel Hooker sailed for the Atlantic coast, reaching New-York early in May, 1861. His services being immediately offered to the Government, he was commissioned a Brigadier-General of volunteers on the seventeenth of May, having his appointment accredited to California.