Selected Correspondance of Abraham Lincoln 1863 Letter To General S. L Curtis
by Abraham Lincoln
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON,
January 5, 1863
MAJOR-GENERAL CURTIS.
MY DEAR SIR:--I am having a good deal of trouble with Missouri
matters, and I now sit down to write you particularly about it. One
class of friends believe in greater severity and another in greater
leniency in regard to arrests, banishments, and assessments. As
usual in such cases, each questions the other's motives. On the one
hand, it is insisted that Governor Gamble's unionism, at most, is not
better than a secondary spring of action; that hunkerism and a wish
for political influence stand before Unionism with him. On the other
hand, it is urged that arrests, banishments, and assessments are made
more for private malice, revenge, and pecuniary interest than for the
public good. This morning I was told, by a gentleman who I have no
doubt believes what he says, that in one case of assessments for
$10,000 the different persons who paid compared receipts, and found
they had paid $30,000. If this be true, the inference is that the
collecting agents pocketed the odd $20,000. And true or not in the
instance, nothing but the sternest necessity can justify the making
and maintaining of a system so liable to such abuses. Doubtless the
necessity for the making of the system in Missouri did exist, and
whether it continues for the maintenance of it is now a practical and
very important question. Some days ago Governor Gamble telegraphed
me, asking that the assessments outside of St. Louis County might be
suspended, as they already have been within it, and this morning all
the members of Congress here from Missouri but one laid a paper
before me asking the same thing. Now, my belief is that Governor
Gamble is an honest and true man, not less so than yourself; that you
and he could confer together on this and other Missouri questions
with great advantage to the public; that each knows something which
the other does not; and that acting together you could about double
your stock of pertinent information. May I not hope that you and he
will attempt this? I could at once safely do (or you could safely do
without me) whatever you and he agree upon. There is absolutely no
reason why you should not agree.
Yours as ever,
A. LINCOLN.
P. S.--I forgot to say that Hon. James S. Rollins, member of Congress
from one of the Missouri districts, wishes that, upon his personal
responsibility, Rev. John M. Robinson, of Columbia, Missouri; James
L. Matthews, of Boone County, Missouri; and James L. Stephens, also
of Boone County, Missouri, may be allowed to return to their
respective homes. Major Rollins leaves with me very strong papers
from the neighbors of these men, whom he says he knows to be true
men. He also says he has many constituents who he thinks are rightly
exiled, but that he thinks these three should be allowed to return.
Please look into the case, and oblige Major Rollins if you
consistently can.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
[Copy sent to Governor Gamble.]