The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-08-02
LlNCOLN's Gliding.
His Gentle Reproof In Reply to General
Hunters Ugly Letter.


Hunters Ugly Letter.
Another remarkable evidence of the |
great kindliness of heart of Abraham
Lincoln has been brought TO light in
the form of long lost letter which the
martyred president wrote to General
Daniel Hunter in 1861.
General Hunter was in command OF
the department Of Kansas at the time
this particular letter was written. 1t
seems he considered himself dishonored
by an appointment to the rather OBJ
scure military post, and he wrote to the
president protesting against 1T. Lin
coins characteristic reply was as fol-
lows
EXECUTIVE MANSION,
WASHINGTON, Dec. III, 1851.
Major General Hunter:
DEAR SIR-Yours of the 23d is received, and
am constrained TO say il is difficult to answer
SO ugly letter in good temper. am, as You
intimate, losing much OF the great commence
| placed in you, not from any act or comihls'
| sion Of yours touching the public service up 10
| the time you were sent to Leavcnworth, put
J from tho flood of grumbling dispatches and let
| ters have seen from you since. knew you
| were being ordered TO Leavenworth at the
time IL was done, and l aver that, with as ten
| der n regard for your honor and your sensi,
! bilities as had for my own, II never occurred
| TO me that you We're being Illuminated, IN
| erl.ad and disgrnced." nor have up TO this
dny heard any intimation that you have been
wronged coming from any one but yoursei.
No one has blamed you for the retrograde
| movement from Springfield, nor for the lntor-
nation you gave General Cameron, ana TINS
Won could readily understand II 1t were not
| for your unwarranted assumption that the or
derinr 10 Leavenworth must necessarily have
been done as punishment for some tault'
Thought then and think yet, the position as
si,,ned 70 Won is as responsible and as honor
able as that assigned to BUELL. know ina
General Mcclellan expected more lmportan
results from it, My impression Is that at IN
. | tir,e Won were assigned to the new western
denartment it had not been determined to re
nlace General sherman i'll Kentucky, but G
| tbie I am not certain, because the idea that
! command in Kentucky was very desiiaple' an
? ono in the farther west undesirable, had new
occurred to me. You constantly speak OF "
inc nlaced in command of only 500 Now te
: me. Is not this mere impatiencef have yo
: not known all the while that you are 10 con
mand four or five times that manyf
Jbnye been and am sincerely your frlen'
= and If as such dare TO make n suggestion
!. would say you are adopting the best possip
n ! way to ruin yourself. Act wen YOU Pc,
a There all the honor lies" He who does som
u thing Mt the head Of one regiment will ecnp
o him who does nothing at the head OF loo. 70
n sr;n,d "a ever. A. LINCOLN.
Nothing could have been better ca
a culated to allay the feelings of person
10 wrong which must have possess
!. Hunter at the time. That he Thought
to himself is shown by the followl
IL words, written by the dissatisfied &c
I'd eral ON the big yellow envelope
which the letter had been sent:
In 1.-The presidents reply to my US
by letter. This lay on his table MOI
n after it was written, and when fna
ad sent was by special conveyance w
the direction that it was only 10
er given to me when | was i'll a good
NOR. New York Sun.