The San Francisco call., 1899-02-12
Celebrating 5ks qnn<versa,y

much as you could, in which you
did a great wrong to the country
and to a. most meritorious and hon.
orable brother officer. l have
heard. in such way as to believe
1t. of your recently saying that
both the army and the Government
needed a dictator.
OF course, it was not for this, but
in spite of 1t, that l have given you
the command Only those generals
who gain successes can set up dc
tators What 1 now ask Of you Is
military success, and I will risk the
dictatorship. The Government will
support you to the utmost Of its
ability, which Is neither more nor
less than it has done and will do
for all commanders. 1 much fear
that the spirit which you have aid
ed to infuse into the army, OF criti-
cizing their commander and with
holding confidence from him, will
now turn upon you. 1 shall assist
you as far as I can to put 1t down.
Neither you nor Napoleon, If he
were alive again, could get any
good out Of an army while such
spirit prevails in 1t; and now be-
ware Of rashness. Beware of rash
ness, but with energy and sleep
less vigilance 50 forward and give
us victories. Yours very truly
Hooker had q manly heart and the
Presidents words appealed to the best
that was in him. Noah Brooks tells
how he heard the general read the let
reading it, writes Brooks. almost
with tears in his eyes: and as he folded
it and put it back 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
think he was harder on me than I de-
served, I will say that I love the man
who wrote 1t.
Throughout the war Mr.. Lincoln was
beset by his generals to right their
wrongs and crafty their ambitions. He
was quick to 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 that winning battles, not
haggling for honors, was a soldiers
business Just then. Thus in March,
1868, Rosecrans became disturbed be-
cause Grant outranked him and he
wrote Lincoln asking that his commits
sion be dated earlier. Lincoln at once
saw the reason Of the request and he
replied:
Now as to your request that your
commission should date from Decem-
Der, 1861. Of course, you expected to
gain something by this; but you should
remember that precisely so much as
you should gain by it others would lose
by 1t. If the thing you sought had been
exclusively ours, we would have given
it cheerfully; but, being the right Of
other men, we having merely arbi-
trary power over 1t, the taking 1t from
them and giving it to you becomes
ing 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 bat
tie Of Stone River, and it will never
care a fig whether you rank General
Grant on paper, or he SO ranks you"
When 1t happened, as 1t sometimes
did, that the jealousies between gen.
erals became open conflicts. and Lin
coin was called upon by one or the 9TH
er to interfere, he never hesitated to
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 to the point occurred
in. January, 1863, when McClernand and
Halleck were having trouble and Nc
Clernand appealed to Lincoln. The
Presidents reply was terse but suffi-
cient:
Il have too many family controver-
sizes, so to speak, already on my hands
to voluntarily, or so long as 1 can avoid
it, take up another. You are now doing
well-well for the country and we'll for
yourself-much better than you could
possibly be if engaged in open war with
General Halleck. Allow me to beg that,
for your sake, for my sake, and for your
country's sake, You give your whole at
tention to the better work"
1t would not be difficult to extend
these quotations to great length, for
throughout the war the President
showed the same patience and good
sense in cases where it seemed to him
that his counsels might be useful. He
never spared those to whom he wrote: