y shall enter active service again, and I
share in this feeling. He is not a difficult man to satisfy, sincerity and
courage being his strong traits. Believing in our cause, and wanting
to fight for it, is the whole matter with him. Could you, without
embarrassment, assign him a place, if directed to report to you?

A. LINCOLN.

TO SECRETARY STANTON.

(Private.)

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 21, 1863.

HON. SECRETARY OF WAR.

MY DEAR SIR:--Sending a note to the Secretary of the Navy, as I promised,
he called over and said that the strikes in the ship-yards had thrown
the completion of vessels back so much that he thought General Gilimore's
proposition entirely proper. He only wishes (and in which I concur) that
General Gillmore will courteously confer with, and explain to, Admiral
Dahlgren.

In regard to the Western matter, I believe the program will have to stand
substantially as I first put it. Henderson, and especially Brown, believe
that the social influence of St. Louis would inevitably tell injuriously
upon General Pope in the particular difficulty existing there, and I think
there is some force in that view.

As to retaining General Schofield temporarily, if this should be done,
I believe I should scarcely be able to get his nomination through the
Senate. Send me over his nomination, which, however, I am not quite ready
to send to the Senate.

Yours as ever,

A. LINCOLN.

TO O. D. FILLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 22, 1863.

O. D. FILLEY, ST. Louis, Missouri:

I have just looked over a petition signed by some three dozen citizens of
St. Louis, and three accompanying letters, one by yourself, one by a Mr.
Nathan Ranney, and one by a Mr. John D. Coalter, the whole relating to the
Rev. Dr. McPheeters. The petition prays, in the name of justice and mercy,
that I will restore Dr. McPheeters to all his ecclesiastical rights. This
gives no intimation as to what ecclesiastical rights are withheld.

Your letter states that Provost-Marshal Dick, about a year ago, ordered
the arrest of Dr. McPheeters, pastor of the Vine Street Church, prohibited
him from officiating, and placed the management of the affairs of the
church out of the control of its chosen trustees; and near the close
you state that a certain course "would insure his release." Mr. Ranney's
letter says: "Dr. Samuel S. McPheeters is enjoying all the rights of a
civilian, but cannot preach the G