Chapter three
Washington, D.C.By the third year of the war the United States of America was caught in the thick web of a martial law dictatorship. Trouble was, most citizens didn’t know it. It was a time when thousands of Northerners had been jailed on suspicion without cause, unable to seek legal advice. Only a favored few had rights, depending on who they were and who they supported politically. Military courts had replaced civil courts. All transportation had been nationalized, and it was rumored that all telegraph communication might be forced into the same fate. The two men behind this terrifying consolidation of power were about to meet for one of their regular gab sessions in a corner of a Washington hotel dining room.
Edwin Stanton finished his afternoon meal and ordered the wine
