Rebel Advantages at Opening of War--They knew all about the Army Officers--Early Contrast of Rebel Enthusiasm and Union Indifference--Importance of Mr. Stanton's Post--His Birth and Ancestry--His Education and Law Studies--County Attorney --State Reporter--Defends Mr. McNulty--Removes to Pittsburg --His Line of Business--The Wheeling Case--He Removes to Washington--His Qualifications as a Lawyer--He Enters Buchanan's Cabinet--His Unexpected Patriotism--His Own Account of the Cabinet at News of Anderson's Move to Sumter--The Lion before the Old Red Dragon--Appointed Secretary of War--"Bricks in his Pockets"--Stanton's Habitual Reserve--His Wrath--"The Angel Gabriel as Paymaster"--Anecdotes of Lincoln's Confidence in Stanton--Lincoln's Affection for him--The Burdens of his Office --His Kindness of Heart within a Rough Outside--The Country his Debtor. Mr. Greeley, in his History of the American Conflict, gives a survey of the advantages possessed by the rebels at the commencement of the war, in the martial character of their leaders. Jefferson Davis was a regularly educated graduate of West Point, who had been five years at the head of the War Department of the United States, and while in that situation had matured his future plans. He and his successor, Floyd, up to the year 1861, had arranged the United States military service to suit themselves, and left it in precisely the best condition for their designs. "They knew every officer in the United States service, knew the military value of each, whom to call away and organize to lead their own forces, and who, even if loyal, would serve their purposes better being left in our armies than taken into theirs." "On the other hand, President Lincoln, without military education or experience, found himself suddenly plunged into a gigantic and to him unexpected war, with no single member of his cabinet even pretending to military genius or experience, and with the offices of his army filled to his hand by the chiefs of the rebellion. Whereas the whole rebel officers were enthusiasts who had forsaken all old connections to join the new army, the officers remaining were some of them old and feeble, like Scott, and others of that moderate kind of nature which inclines to remain stationary with the old institutions, rather than to make a fiery forward movement. Some two hundred of the very bravest and most skilful of our army officers went over to the new cause, to which they carried all the enthusiasm of youth and hope. Lincoln, in fact, was in the condition of a man who should be put to a naval race in an old ship from which his competitors had taken their pick of all the best sails, spars and hands.