Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-07-24
LINCOLN's GENTLE GLIDING.
His ReproOf to Gen. Hunter Now Pub
lfshed for the First Time.

His Reproof to Gen. Hunter Now Pub
lished for the First Time.
From MoClure's
Another remarkable evidence of the
great kindness of heart Of Abraham Lin
coin has just been brought to light in the
form Of a long-lost letter which the mar
tyred President wrote to General David
Hunter in 1861.
General Hunter was in command Of the
department Of Kansas at the time this
particular letter was written, says the
New York Sun. 1t seems he considered
himself dishonored by an appointment to
the rather obscure military post, and wrote
to the President protesting against 1t.
Lincoln's characteristic reply was as fol-
lows:
Executive Mansion,
"Washington, December 81 1861.
Major General Hunter:
Dear Sir: Yours of the 23d is received,
and 1 am constrained to say ii is difficult
to answer so ugly a letter in good temper.
L am as you intimate. losing much of the
great confidence l placed in you, not from
any act or commission of yours touching
the public service up to the time you were
sent 10 Leavenworth, but from the flood of
grt milling dispatches and letters / have
seen from you since. l knew you were be-
ing ordered to LeaVenworth at the time il
was done, and l aver that with as tender
a regard for your honor and your sensi-
bilities as 1 had for my own, it never
occurred to NE that you were being 'hu-
inflated, inSulted and disgraced' nor have
l up to this day heard any intimation tina I
you have been wronged coming from any
one but yourself. No one has blamed YOU
Tor the rerograde movement from Spring.
neld, nor for the information you gave
Generai Cameron; and this you could read
lily understand If it were not for your un-
warranted assumption that the ordering to
LeaVenworth must necessarily have been
done as punishment for some fault l
thorght then, and l think yet, the position
assigned to you Is responsible and as
honorable as that assigned to Buell.
know that General Mcclellan expected
mere important results from f.: Nv i'm
pressicn Is that at the time you were as
signed to the new western department II
mad not been determined to replace Gem
eral Sherman in Kentucky, but of this
am not certain, because the idea that a
command in Kentucky was very desira BILE
and one in the further west undesira bile
pad never occurred to me. You constant
ly speak of being placed in command of
only 1900. Now, tell me, is not this mere
1mpatience? Have you not known all the
while that you are to command four or
five times that many?
Il have been and am sincerely your
friend; and If as such / dare to make a
suggestion, / 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 the head
of enc regiment will eclipse him who does
nothing at the head of a hundred. 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 general on the big yell
In H-bi oh l.
cent:
The Presidents reply to my ugly let
ter This lay on his table a month after
II was written, and when finally sent, was
by a special conveyance. with the direc-
ton that 1t was only to be given to me
when 1 was in a good humur"