John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

In view of the fact that Seward remained to the date of the inauguration the acknowledged leader of the Free-soilers and Republicans in Congress, and afterwards, as Lincoln's most conspicuous rival for the presidency, was selected to fill the high office of Secretary of State, it may be fairly assumed that he had not changed his attitude towards Dana, even though the latter was no longer connected with the Tribune.

But this is not all. The hearty support which that journal had from the first given to a vigorous prosecution of the war, and especially the aggressive views which the managing editor was now generally known to entertain in reference to the methods and plans of carrying it on, had secured for Dana the approval and friendship of a far more powerful and important friend in the cabinet than even Seward. I refer, of course, to Stanton, the new Secretary of War, and in order to remove all doubt as to the personal and official relations between them, I shall in the next chapter quote freely from the correspondence which passed between them, from the beginning of their acquaintance to the end of the war period.