Team of Rivals

"'No two men were ever more utterly and irreconcilably unlike,' Stanton's private secretary, A.E. Johnson, observed.  'The secretiveness which Lincoln wholly lacked, Stanton had in marked degree; the charity which Stanton could not feel, coursed from every pore in Lincoln.  Lincoln was for giving a wayward subordinate seventy times seven chances to repair his errors; Stanton was for either forcing him to obey or cutting off his head without more ado.  Lincoln was as calm and unruffled as the summer sea in moments of gravest peril; Stanton would lash himself into a fury over the same condition of things.  Stanton would take hardships with a groan; Lincoln would find a funny story to fit them.  Stanton was all dignity and sternness, Lincoln all simplicity and good nature... yet no two men ever did or could work better in harness.  They supplemented each other's nature, and they fully recognized the fact that they were a necessity to each other.'"  (Charles Benjamin)  (560)