Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 6 [Dec. 13, 1862-Nov. 3, 1863].

Annotation

[1]   ALS, RPB. The bracketed portion of the date is not in Lincoln's handwriting. On July 14 General Schofield replied that he feared Lincoln had been misinformed as to the circumstances of William McKee's arrest and summarized the case as follows: ``While I was temporarily absent from Saint Louis your letter of May 27 appeared in the Democrat. I regard this letter as official and confidential. The publication of it, with my knowledge or consent, would have been a gross breach of your confidence. . . . If obtained by the connivance of one of my subordinates . . . a like breach of trust had been committed. If a copy of the letter had been sent by you to General Curtis, and this found its way to the press without his or your authority, a serious offense had been committed by some one. In either case it was my . . . duty to ascertain who had been guilty of so great a breach of trust. . . . I then sent . . . a verbal request to Mr. McKee to call and explain. . . . Mr. McKee paid no attention. . . . After waiting several days, I caused one of my staff officers, a personal friend of Mr. McKee, to repeat the request in writing. This Mr. McKee also treated with

contempt. . . . After waiting several days longer, I ordered Mr. McKee to be arrested and brought before the provost- -marshal- -general, and required to give the desired information. Mr. McKee stated that the letter did not come to him from my office, but he was unwilling to say from whom it did come, and asked ten days' time in which to make his reply. This request was granted. Mr. McKee's arrest was merely nominal, he simply giving his verbal parole that he would report at the end of ten days. It is now sought, I presume, to get your order suspending further proceedings . . . and thus screen the guilty party. Mr. McKee declares his own innocence, saying he came by the letter honestly, but he is unwilling to inform me who the guilty party is. It seems probable from all I can learn that Mr. McKee obtained the letter . . . through some friend of General Curtis, to whom, I presume, you sent a copy of it, and not through the infidelity of some person under my command, as at first appeared. If this is true, I am very willing to stop proceedings in the matter if you will express your willingness to overlook the offense committed in the publication of the letter, or in giving it to the press for publication, and to pardon the offender without knowing who he may be. . . .'' (OR, I, XXII, II, 373- -74).

See further Lincoln to Schofield, July 20, infra.