After the others who had sat by Lincoln’s deathbed had left, Stanton spent a private moment in the room where Lincoln’s body lay. Although Stanton, with Lincoln dead, saw himself as being responsible for the nation’s security, he was also affected on a personal level by the death of the president. During the years of the war, the cabinet members had forged close, almost familial ties. Looking at Lincoln’s corpse, Stanton thought back on other losses that top government officials and their families had suffered. Mary Jane Welles had nursed Mary Todd Lincoln through the loss of her son Willie…