To Joseph Gillespie1Jump to section
Your letter of the 9th. of June in which you manifest some apprehension that your writing directly to Gen: Taylor had been regarded as improper, was received by me at Washington. I feel I owe you an apology for not answering it sooner. You committed no error in writing directly to the President; half the letters, or nearly so, on the subject of appointments, are so addressed. The President assorts them, and sends them to the Departments to which they belong respectively. Whether he reads them first, or only so far as to ascertain what subject they are on, I have not learned.
Mr. Edwards2Jump to section is angry with me; and, in which, he is wronging me very much. He wrote a letter against me & in favor of Butterfield, which was filed in the Department. Ever since I discovered this, I have had a conflict of feeling, whether to write him or not; and, so far, I have remained silent. If he knew of your letters to me of the 9th. of May, and to the President of the 23rd. I suspect he would be angry with you too. Both those letters would help defend me with him; but I will not hazzard your interest by letting him know of them. To avoid that, I write you a separate letter which I wish you would show him when it may be convenient.
You will please accept my sincere thanks for the very flattering terms in which you speak of me in your letter to the President. I withdrew the papers on file in my behalf, by which means your letter is now in my possession. Yours as ever A. LINCOLN