Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1897-08-19
LlNcoLNs GENTLE GLIDING.
His Rcproof to Gen. Hunter Now Pub.
lished for the First Time.

HIS RcprOOf to Gen. Hunter Now Pub
Iished for the First Time.
Another remarkable evidence, of the
great kindliness of heart of Abraham
Lincoln has just been brought to light
in the form of a long-lost letter which
the martyred president wrote to Gen.
Daniel Hunter in 1861.
Gen. Hunter was In command of tho
department. of Kansas at the time this
particular letter was written. It seems
he considered himself dishonored by an
appointment to the rather obscure mill
itary post, and wrote to the president
protesting against it. Li1fcoln's char
acteristic reply was as follows:
Executive Mansion, Washington.
Dec. 81, 1S61.-Maj. Gen. Hunter. Dear
Sir: Yours of the 23d is received, and I
am constrained to say it is difficult to an
swer so ugly q letter in good temper.
] am, as you intimate, losing much OF
the great confidence / placed in you,
not from any act or commission of
yours touching the public service up
to the time you were sent to Leaven-
worth, but from the flood Of grumbfing
dispatches and letters 1 have seen
from you since. I knew you were be-
ing ordered to Leavenworth at the time
it was done, and 1 aver that with as ten
der regard for your honor and your
sensibilities as have for my own, it
never occurred to me that you were be-
ing Inundated, insulted and dis
graced,' nor have I up to this day heard
any intimation that you have been
wronged coming from anyone but your.
self. No one has blamed you for tho
retrograde movement from Springfield,
nor for the information you gave Gen.
Cameron; and this you could readily
understand, if it were not for your I'M
warranted assumption that the order
ing to leavenworth must necessarily have
been done as punishment for some
fault. / thought then, and think yet,
the position assigned to you is as re-
sponsible and as honorable as that as
signed to BUELL. know that Gen. Nc
Clelland expected more important re-
suits from it. My impression is that
ut the time you were assigned to the
new western department it had not
been determined to replace Gen. SHEER
man in Kentucky, but of this am not
certain, because the idea that O COM
1nand in Kentucky was very desirable,
and one in the further west undesirable,
had never occurred to me. You con-
stantly speak of being placed in COM
mand of only 1900. Now, tell me, is
not this mere impatience? Have you
not known all the while that you are to
command four or five times that many?
81 have been and am sincerely your
friend; and if as such dare make sug-
gestion, would say you are adopting
the best possible way to ruin yourself.
Act well your part, there all the honor
lies He who does something at tho
head of one regiment will eclipse him
who does nothing at the head of 100.
Your friend, as ever. A. Lincoln"
Nothing could have been better calcu-
lated to allay the feelings of personal
wrong which must have possessed
Hunter at the time. That he thought so
himself is shown by the following
words, written by the dissatisfied gen.
eral on the big yellow envelope in which
the letter had been sent:
'"rhe presidents reply to my ugly
letter. This lay on his table q month
after it was written, and when finally
sent, was by special conveyance, with
the direction that it was only to be
given to me when 1 was in good humor."
IN. Y. Sun.