Daily globe., 1879-05-18
LINCOLN.

A Letter from " OtG AOe' to Gen. Hooker.
(New York Times.
In the Providence Journal of May is
printed letter from Lincoln to Gen.
Hooker, written just after the latter had
taken command of the army of the Poto-
mac. The letter was penned in January,
1868, and, while the President yet retained
it in his possession, az intimate friend
CHANGED to be in his cabinet one night, and
the President read it to him, remarking, 81
shall not read this to anybody else, but I
want to know how it strikes you.'' During
the following April or May, while the army
of the Potomac lay opposite Fredericksburg,
this friend accompanied the President to
Gen. Hooker's headquarters on visit.
One night Gen. Hooker, alone in his tent
with this gentleman, said: "The
President says that he showed you
this letter." and be then took out that docu-
ment, which was closely written on a
sheet of letter paper. The tears stood in
the Generals bright blue eyes as he added:
ut is such a letter as father might have
Then, dashing the water from his eyes, he
said: "When I have been to Richmond,
I shall have this letter published This
letter has Just now seen the light of day.
There are in it certain sharp passages
which, after this long lapse of time, can
not be verified by the memory of any who
heard it read in 1868. There are others
which seem missing. Nevertheless, the
letter, which is herewith printed, must have
been written by Lincoln:
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. c.,
Jan. 26, 1863,-Maj. Gen. Hooker General:
I have placed you at the head of the army
of the Potomac. OF course I have done
this upon what appears to me to be suffi-
cient reasons: and yet think it best for yon
to know that there are some things in regard
to which am not quite satisfied with you.
I believe you to be brave and skillful
soldier-which, of course, like. I also be-
lieve you do not mix politics with your
profession-in which you are right. You
have confidence in yourself which is a
valuable, if not an indispensable, quail
ity. You are ambitious, which, with reas-
enable bounds, does good rather than harm,
but think that, during Gen. Burnside's
command of the army, you have taken
council of your ambition and thwarted him
as much as you could, in which you did a
great wrong to the country, and to a
most meritorious and honorable brother-of-
fcer. have heard, in such way as to be-
lieve it, of your recently saying that both
the army and the government needed die
tator. OF course it was not for this, but in
spite of it, that have given you the COM
mand. Only these generals who gain sue
cesses can set up dictators. What I now
| ask of you is military success, and I will
risk the dictatorship. The government will
support you to the utmost of it's ability,
| which is neither more nor less than it has
done and will do for all commanders. I
much fear that the spirit which you have
aided to infuse into the army, of criticising
their commander and withholding confidence
from him, will now turn upon you. I shall
assist you as far as I can to put it down.
Neither you nor Napoleon, if he were alive
again, could get any good out of an army
while such spirit prevails in it. And now
| beware of rashness. Beware of rashness,
but, with energy and sleepless vigilence, go
forward and give US victories.
Yours very truly, A. LINCOLN.