encouraging.

"I am very respectfully your obt. servt.,
"J. M. Schofield, Maj.-Genl.
"To the President."

I had abundant reason to be satisfied with the result of this
controversy, so far as it concerned me, and with the condition of
the department when it terminated, near midwinter. Yet I was
satisfied some change was impending, and cared not how soon it
might come, now that my administration had been fully vindicated.
In fact, such a command was not at all to my taste, and I had always
longed for purely military service in the field, free from political
complications. It was therefore with sincere pleasure that I
received, in December, a summons from the President to come to
Washington.

SUMMONED TO WASHINGTON BY MR. LINCOLN

But before relating the circumstances of my visit to the President,
I must refer to an incident which occurred a short time before I
left St. Louis, and which I was afterward led to suspect was the
immediate cause of the President's desire to see me.

The Missouri legislature was in session and balloting for a United
States senator. The legislature was divided into three parties--
radicals, conservative Republicans, and Democrats, or "copperheads,"
neither strong enough to elect without a fusion with one of the
others. A union of the radicals and the conservatives was, of
course, most desired by the administration; but their bitterness
had become so great that either would prefer a bargain with the
Democrats rather than with the other. The Hon. E. B. Washburne,
representative in Congress from Illinois, made an opportune visit
to St. Louis about this time, procured an interview with me at the
house of a common friend, and led me into a frank conversation
relative to this political question. I told him candidly that in
my opinion the desired union of radicals and conservatives was
impossible, for they were more bitterly opposed to each other then
either was to the Democrats. Mr. Washburne went to Washington,
and reported to the President that I was opposed to the much-desired
radical and conservative union in Missouri, and was using my
influence to prevent it. So opposite was this to the truth that
I had even written a letter to my friend Colonel J. O. Broadhead,
the conservative candidate, asking him to withdraw in favor of the
radical candidate, as a means of bringing about the harmony so much
desired by the President. This letter was no