d a bitter controversy with each other. General Curtis,
commander of the military district comprising Missouri, Kansas, and
Arkansas, was at the head of one faction, while Governor Gamble led the
other. Their differences were a source of great embarrassment to the
Government at Washington, and of harm to the Union cause. The President
was in constant receipt of remonstrances and protests from the
contesting parties, to one of which he made the following curt reply:

Your despatch of to-day is just received. It is very painful to me
that you, in Missouri cannot, or will not, settle your factional
quarrel among yourselves. I have been tormented with it beyond
endurance, for months, by both sides. Neither side pays the least
respect to my appeals to reason. I am now compelled to take hold of
the case.

A. LINCOLN.

The President promptly followed up this warning by removing General
Curtis, and appointing in his place General Schofield, to whom he soon
after addressed the following letter:

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON,
May 27, 1863.

GENERAL J.M. SCHOFIELD.

DEAR SIR: Having removed General Curtis and assigned you to the
command of the Department of the Missouri, I think it may be of
some advantage to me to state to you why I did it. I did not remove
General Curtis because of my full conviction that he had done wrong
by commission or omission. I did it because of a conviction in my
mind that the Union men of Missouri, constituting, when united, a
vast majority of the people, have entered into a pestilent,
factious quarrel among themselves; General Curtis, perhaps not of
choice, being the head of one faction, and Governor Gamble that of
the other. After months of labor to reconcile the difficulty, it
seemed to grow worse and worse, until I felt it my duty to break it
up somehow, and as I could not remove Governor Gamble, I had to
remove General Curtis. Now that you are in the position, I wish you
to undo nothing merely because General Curtis or Governor Gamble
did it, but to exercise your own judgment, and do right for the
public interest. Let your military measures be strong enough to
repel the invaders and keep the peace, and not so strong as to
unnecessarily harass and persecute the people. It is a difficult
_role_, and so much greater will be the honor if you perform it