Edwin Stanton was the Secretary of War under President Lincoln. In August of 1863, Douglass met with Stanton at the War Department to discuss the unequal treatment black troops were receiving in the Union army. Stanton listened to Douglass but gave off a gruff attitude. In an effort to get Douglass out of his hair, Stanton suggested Douglass gain a commission and travel to the Mississippi Valley and help to recruit black men for the Union army. The offer does not appear to have been genuine.
“Stanton was all business and no small talk. ‘Politeness was not one of his weaknesses,’ Douglass recollected of Stanton. His ‘brusqueness’ seemed to fill the air of the office, as if ‘he might turn his back on me as a bore at any moment.’”[1]
Edwin Stanton died on December 24, 1869 at the age of 55. He was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
Exact Grave GPS coordinates: 38.912767, -77.057064
[1] David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018), 407.
The Graves of Frederick Douglass 