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would be practically between the enemy and both Washington and Richmond, enabling us to spare you the greatest number of troops from here. When, at length, running for Richmond ahead of him enables him to move this way, if he does so, turn and attack him in the rear. But I think he should be engaged long before such our troops march as well as the unmanly to say they cannot do it. no sense an order. Yours truly,

point is reached. It is all easy if

enemy, and it is This letter is in

A. LINCOLN.

LETTER TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD,

(Relative to the removal of General Curtis.) EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 27, 1863. GEN. 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 Gov. 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 ineasures 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 rôle, and so much more will be the honor if you perform it well. If both factions, or neither, shall abuse you, you will probably be about right. Beware of being assailed by one and praised by the other. Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN.

LETTER TO GEN. U. S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 13, 1863. MAJ.-GEN. U. S. GRANT.

My Dear General:—I do not remember that you and I ever met personally. I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the almost inestimable service you have done the country.

I wish to say a word further.

When you first

reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I thought you should do what you finally did-march the troops

across the neck, run the batteries with the transports, and thus go below; and I never had any faith, except a general hope that you knew better than I, that the Yazoo Pass expedition and the like could succeed. When you got below and took Port Gibson, Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and join General Banks, and when you turned northward, east of the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make the personal acknowledgment that you were right and I was wrong. Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN.

LETTER TO GEN. U. S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 30, 1864. LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT:- Not expecting to see you before the spring campaign opens, I wish to express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done up to this time, so far as I understand it. The particulars of your plans I neither know nor seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant; and, pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any restraints or constraints upon you. While I am very anxious that any great dis

NOTE.-General Grant was made commander of the district of West Tennessee March, 1862; of the Dept. of the Tennessee in Oct., 1862; of the Division of the Mississippi Oct., 1863; LieutenantGeneral, March 2, 1864, and commander of all the American Armies, March 12, 1864.

aster or capture of our men in great number shall be avoided, I know these points are less likely to escape your attention than they would be mine.

If there be anything wanting which is in my power to give, do not fail to let me know it. And now, with

a brave army and a just cause, may God sustain you. Yours very truly,

A. LINCOLN.

ORDER FOR SABBATH OBSERVANCE.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, Nov. 16, 1862. The President, commander-in-chief of the army and navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by the officers and men in the military and naval service. The importance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine will, demand that Sunday labor in the army and navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity.

The discipline and character of the national forces should not suffer, nor the cause they defend be imperiled, by the profanation of the day or name of the Most High. "At this time of public distress" (adopting the words of Washington in 1776,) "men may find enough to do in the service of God and their country without abandoning themselves to vice and immorality."

The first general order issued by the Father of his Country after the Declaration of Independence indicates the spirit in which our institutions were founded and should ever be defended:

"The general hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country."

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

OUR GOOD PRESIDENT.

Our sun hath gone down at the noon-day,

The heavens are black;

And over the morning, the shadows

Of night-time are back.

Stop the proud boasting mouth of the cannon;

Hush the mirth and the shout;—

God is God! and the ways of Jehovah

Are past finding out.

Lo! the beautiful feet on the mountains,

That yesterday stood,

The white feet that came with glad tidings

Are dabbled in blood.

The Nation that firmly was settling

The crown on her head,

Sits like Rizpah, in sackcloth and ashes,
And watches her dead.

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