enrolled militia then have been broken up and General Herron kept from Grant to police Missouri?  So far from finding cause to object, I confess to a sympathy for whatever relieves our general force in Missouri and allows it to serve elsewhere.  I therefore, as at present advised, cannot attempt the destruction of the enrolled militia of Missouri.  I may add that, the force being under the national military control, it is also within the proclamation in regard to the habeas corpus.

I concur in the propriety of your request in regard to elections, and have, as you see, directed General Schofield accordingly.  I do not feel justified to enter upon the broad field you present in regard to the political differences between Radicals and Conservatives.  From time to time I have done and said what appeared to me proper to do and say.  The public knows it all.  It obliges nobody to follow me, and I trust it obliges me to follow nobody.  The Radicals and Conservatives each agree with me in some things and disagree in others.  I could wish both to agree with me in all things, for then they would agree with each other, and would be too strong for any foe from any quarter.  They, however, choose to do otherwise; and I do not question their right.  I too shall do what seems to be my duty.  I hold whoever commands in Missouri or elsewhere responsible to me and not to either Radicals or Conservatives.  It is my duty to hear all, but at last I must, within my sphere, judge what to do and what to forbear.

Your obedient servant,

A. Lincoln.

APPROVAL OF THE DECISION OF THE COURT IN THE CASE OF DR. DAVID M. WRIGHT.

War department, adjutant-generals office,

Washington, October 8, 1863.

Major-general J. G. Foster, Commanding Department of Virginia and
North Carolina, Fort Monroe, Va.

Sir:—­The proceedings of the military commission instituted for the trial of David Wright, of Norfolk, in Special Orders Nos. 195, 196, and 197, of 1863, from headquarters Department of Virginia, have been submitted to the President of the United States.  The following are his remarks on the case: 

Upon the presentation of the record in this case and the examination thereof, aided by the report thereon of the Judge-Advocate-General, and on full hearing of counsel for the accused, being specified that no proper question remained open except as to the sanity of the accused, I caused a very full examination to be made on that question, upon a great amount of evidence, including all effort by the counsel for accused, by an expert of high reputation in that professional department, who thereon reports to me, as his opinion, that the accused, Dr. David M. Wright, was not insane prior to or on the 11th day of July, 1863, the date of the homicide of Lieutenant Sanborn; that he has not been insane since, and is not insane now (Oct. 7, 1863).  I therefore approve the finding and sentence of the military commission, and direct that the major-general in command of the department including the place of trial, and wherein the convict is now in custody, appoint a time and place and carry such sentence into execution.