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Yours of July 31st is received. Governor Carney did leave some papers with me concerning you; but they made no great impression upon me; and I believe they are not altogether such as you
seem to think. As I am not proposing to act upon them, I do not now take the time to re-examine them.
I regret to find you denouncing so many persons as liars, scoundrels, fools, thieves, and persecutors of yourself. Your military position looks critical, but did any body force you into it? Have you been ordered to confront and fight ten thousand men, with three thousand men? The Government cannot make men; and it is very easy, when a man has been given the highest commission, for him to turn on those who gave it and vilify them for not giving him a command according to his rank.
My appointment of you first as a Brigadier, and then as a Major General, was evidence of my appreciation of your service; and I have not since marked but one thing in connection with you, with which to be dissatisfied. The sending a military order twenty five miles outside of your lines, and all military lines, to take men charged with no offence against the military, out of the hands of the courts, to be turned over to a mob to be hanged, can find no precedent or principle to justify it.2Jump to section Judge Lynch sometimes takes jurisdiction of cases which prove too strong for the courts; but this is the first case within my knowledge, wherein the court being able to maintain jurisdiction against Judge Lynch, the military has come to the assistance of the latter. I take the facts of this case as you state them yourself, and not from any report of Governor Carney, or other person. Yours truly A LINCOLN
[1] LS (copy?), DLC-RTL. See Lincoln to Lane, July 17, and to Carney, July 21, supra. On July 31, General Blunt wrote Lincoln:
``I have learned . . . that Thomas Carney, Governor of Kansas, has recently filed with you charges against myself. . . . Justice . . . demands that these charges should be investigated. . . . I know that he never intended that there should be an investigation . . . but expected to . . . get rid of me upon his own representation. . . . I have denounced him publicly as a thief and a liar. . . . I have no hesitation in saying that a greater thief and corrupt villain than Thomas Carney does not live, and all that he lacks to make him a finished scoundrel is his stupidity and want of brains. . . . He has furthermore been aided in his crusade against me by the commanding general of this department . . . a general inferior to me in grade and rank, who enjoys a reputation among the soldiers of the west for cowardice and imbecility. . . .
``My private grievances shall not interfere with the public interest. If the good of the cause requires it I will command 500 negroes, and my present command is not much more---a gay command for a major-general. . . . I have made repeated application for re-enforcements . . . . the enemy . . . are at least 12,000 strong . . . and are offering battle. I have not more than 3,000 effective men. . . . I am well convinced that there has been a determined purpose . . . to sacrifice this command by withholding re-enforcements in order . . . to get rid of me. . . .'' (OR, I, LIII, 565-67).
Blunt was relieved of his command at Fort Smith, Arkansas, by General Orders No. 118, Headquarters Department of the Missouri, October 19, 1863 (OR, I, XXII, II, 666).
[2]
Blunt's reply on September 24 said of this point in Lincoln's letter, ``In regard to the matter of hanging certain men in Atchison, and which you remark is the only act of mine with which you have been dissatisfied, I think you must have misunderstood the fact when you state that I `went twenty-five miles outside of my lines, or any other military lines.' Atchison is in Kansas and Kansas was under my military rule and under my command. The courts were not competent to try offenders, and the civil law could not be executed. . . . Murderers and thieves had inaugurated a reign of terror . . . and the people looked to me, and to me alone, for protection. I had not troops sufficient to protect them in all parts of the State, and when the honest people themselves resolved to take matters into their own hands and protect themselves, I did give my consent that they should deal with them as their crimes deserved. The effect of the hanging at Atchison was salutary, and the condition of affairs in Kansas since the command passed from my hands has convinced me . . . that the hangings stopped too soon. . . .'' (OR, I, LIII, 573).