The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-02-12

tious which, within reasonable pouhos'
does good rather than harm; but tnlhk
that during Gen. Burnside's command OF
the army you have taken counsel OF your
ambition and thwarted him as much as
YOU could i'm which you did great wrong
To the country and to a most merltorlous
and honorable brother officer. nave
heard, in such a way as 30 believe it, OF
your recently saying that both the army
and the government needed a dictator
OF course, il was not for this, but IN
spito of IL, that I have given you the
command. Only those generals VINO gam
successes can set up dictators. What L
now ask OF you is military success, ana
| viii risk the dictatorship. The govern
menl will support you to the utmost OF
its ability, which is neither more nor less
than il has done and will do for all COM
nanders. / much fear that the spirit
which you have aided to infuse into the
army of crticizing their commander and
Withholding confidence from him, will now
turn upon you. l shall assist you as Tar
as can to put it down. Neither you nor
Napoleon, if he were alive again, could
get any good out Of an army while such
a spirit prevails in it; and now beware
of rashness Beware of rashness, but with
energy and sleepless vigilance go forward
and give us victories. Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
ST Love the Man." Said Hooker.
Hooker had a manly heart and the Pres
idents words appealed to the best THAI
was in him. Noah Brooks tells how he
heard the general read the letter soon
after its receipt. He finished reading
it," writes Brooks, almost with tears IN
his eyes; and as he folded it and put II
beck in the breast of his coat he said.
That is just such letter as a father
might write to a son. 1t is a beautiful
letter, and although l think he was harder
on me than l deserved, 1 will say thar
l love the man who wrote it,"
Throughout the war Mr.. Lincoln was
beset by his generals TO right their wrongs
and crafty their ambitions. He was
quick 10 see the motives at the bottom of
complaints and pleas and when he thought
them petty he bluntly said so, at the
same time reminding the applicants thai
winning battles, not hagglng for honors,
was a soldiers business just then. Thus
in March, 1853, Rosecrans became disturb
ed because Grant outranked him and he
wrote Lincoln asking that his commission
be dated earlier. Lincoln at once saw
the reason of the request and he piled:
Nov as TO your request that your COM
mission should date from December. 1851
OF course, you expected 30 gain something
by this; but you should remember that
precisely so much as you should gain by
1t others would lose by it, If the thing
you sought had been exclusively ours, We
would have given il cheerfuly; but, be-
ing the right of other men. we having a
merely arbitrary power over it, the TAX
ing il from them and giving il to your be
comes a more delicate matter and more
deserving of consideration. Truth to
speak, L do not appreciate this matter
of rank on paper as you officers do The
world will not forget that you fought the
battle of Stone River, and it will never
care a fig whether you rank Gen. Grant
on paper or he so ranks you"
When it happened, as Il sometimes did,
that the jealouses between generals be-
came open conflicts and Lincoln was
called upon by one or the other to inter
fere, he never hesitated 10 refuse if he
felt that his interference would complicate
matters. Generally he managed to put
into his refusal a word of good sense
which If 1t had been needed would have
saved the country much disagreeable
scandal and often would have saved the
contestant his reputation. A case 10 the
point occurred in January 1868. when Nc
Clernand and Haleck were having trouble
and McClernand appealed to Lincoln. The
Presidents reply was terse but sufficient:
Il have too many family controversies,
so to speak, already on my hands 20 VOL
unfairly, or so long as / can avoid it, take
up another. ! on are now OOluS Well-Well
for the country and we'll for yourself
much better than you could possibly be If
engaged in open war with Gen. Halleck.
Allow me to beg that, for your sake, for
my sake, and for the country's sake, you
give your whole attention to the better
work"
How Lincoln Wrote His Letters.
II would not he difficult to extend
these quotations to great length, for
throughout the war the President showed
the same patience and good sense in cases
where il seemed TO him that his counsels
might be useful. He never spared those
TO whom he wrote, he never hesitated to lay
bare Their offenses and their base mo-
tiyes, but he did il with an insight and a
great-heartedness which softened the I'M
reasoning and impetuous and for the time
at least made them better soldiers and
wiser men, Though he wrote so large
number Of these letters of counsel he
never wrote one thoughtlessly, nor. indeed
IL he could help Il. He realized thorough
~ the delicacy of giving unsought advice
and only when he felt IL his duty did he
write. Even after he had written he some