o ascertain better than
I now know what is its exact value. Let me say now, however, that your
proposal to substitute national forces for the enrolled militia implies
that in your judgment the latter is doing something which needs to be
done; and if so, the proposition to throw that force away and to supply
its place by bringing other forces from the field where they are urgently
needed seems to me very extraordinary. Whence shall they come? Shall they
be withdrawn from Banks, or Grant, or Steele, or Rosecrans? Few things
have been so grateful to my anxious feelings as when, in June last, the
local force in Missouri aided General Schofield to so promptly send
a large general force to the relief of General Grant, then investing
Vicksburg and menaced from without by General Johnston. Was this all
wrong? Should the enrolled militia then have been broken up and General
Herron kept from Grant to police Missouri? So far from finding cause to
object, I confess to a sympathy for whatever relieves our general force
in Missouri and allows it to serve elsewhere. I therefore, as at present
advised, cannot attempt the destruction of the enrolled militia of
Missouri. I may add that, the force being under the national military
control, it is also within the proclamation in regard to the habeas
corpus.

I concur in the propriety of your request in regard to elections, and
have, as you see, directed General Schofield accordingly. I do not feel
justified to enter upon the broad field you present in regard to the
political differences between Radicals and Conservatives. From time to
time I have done and said what appeared to me proper to do and say.
The public knows it all. It obliges nobody to follow me, and I trust it
obliges me to follow nobody. The Radicals and Conservatives each agree
with me in some things and disagree in others. I could wish both to agree
with me in all things, for then they would agree with each other, and
would be too strong for any foe from any quarter. They, however, choose to
do otherwise; and I do not question their right. I too shall do what
seems to be my duty. I hold whoever commands in Missouri or elsewhere
responsible to me and not to either Radicals or Conservatives. It is my
duty to hear all, but at last I must, within my sphere, judge what to do
and what to forbear.

Your obedient servant,

A. LINCOLN.

THE CASE OF DR. DAVID M. WRIGHT

APPROVAL OF THE DECISION OF THE COURT

WAR DEPARTM