which you are right.

You have confidence in yourself, which is a valuable if not an
indispensable quality.

You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather
than harm; but I think that during General Burnside's command of the
army you have taken counsel of your ambition and thwarted him as much as
you could, in which you did a great wrong to the country, and to a most
meritorious and honorable brother officer.

I have heard, in such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying
that both the army and the government needed a dictator. Of course, it
was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command.
Only those generals who gain successes can set up dictators. What I now
ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship. The
government will support you to the utmost of its ability, which is
neither more nor less than it has done and will do for all commanders. I
much fear that the spirit you have aided to infuse into the army, of
criticising their commander and withholding confidence from him, will
now turn upon you. I shall assist you as far as I can to put it down.
Neither you nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out
of an army while such a spirit prevails in it. And now beware of
rashness, but with sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories.

Yours very truly, A. LINCOLN.

One point in this letter is especially worth our consideration, for it
suggests a condition that springs up like deadly nightshade from a
poisonous soil. I refer to the habit of carping, sneering, grumbling and