ln's are better known, few reveal more exactly the
tone of his final period, than the remarkable communication he addressed
to Hooker two days after that whispered talk with Raymond at the White
House levee:

"General, I have placed you at the head of the army of the Potomac. Of
course I have done this upon what appear to me to be sufficient reasons,
and yet I think it best for you to know that there are some things in
regard to which I am not quite satisfied with you. I believe you to be a
brave and skilful soldier, which of course I like. I also believe you do
not mix politics with your profession, in which you are right. You have
confidence in yourself, which is a valuable, if not an indispensable
quality. You are ambitious, which within reasonable bounds, does good
rather than harm; but I think that during General Burnside's command
of the army you have taken counsel of your ambition and thwarted him as
much as you could, in which you did a great wrong to the country and to
a most meritorious and honorable brother officer. I have heard in such a
way as to believe it, 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 it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals
who gain successes can set up dictators. What I now ask 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. I much fear that the spirit
which you have aided to infuse into the army, of criticizing their
commander and withholding confidence from him, will now turn upon you.
I shall assist you as far as I 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."(10)

The appointment of Hooker had the effect of quieting the Committee for
the time. Lincoln turned again to his political scheme, but not until
he had made another military appointment from which at the moment no
one could have guessed that trouble would ever come. He gave to
Burnside what might be called the sinecure position of Commander of the
Department of the Ohio with headquarters at Cincinnati.(11)

During the early part of 1863 Lincoln's political scheme