May 18, 1861.—Letter To Secretary Chase.
Executive Mansion, May 18, 1861.
Hon. Secretary Of The Treasury.
My dear Sir: The suggestions of your note accompanying the commission for Mr. Dennison as naval officer at New York have been considered in the same spirit of kindness in which I know they were offered. They present the very difficulty which has embarrassed me from the first in the case: that Mr. Dennison has not the position in the public eye which would lead to the expectation of his receiving so high an office. I believe I have told you fully what it was, and is, that pressed me to appoint him: the urgent solicitation of an old friend who has served me all my life, and who has never before received or asked anything in return. His ( Mr. Dennison’s) good character was vouched for from the start by many at New York, including Mr. Opdyke.
At length, when I was, as it were, in the very act of appointing him, Mr. ________ made a general charge of dishonesty against him. I pressed him for particulars, and it turned out that Mr. Dennison in his business as a lawyer had got some printing done for his clients, becoming personally responsible for the work, and had not paid for it when dunned. While this, if true, is certainly not to be commended, I believe the like might, in some cases, be proven upon me. They are a class of debts which our clients ought to pay, and when we are personally dunned for them we sometimes hang fire. Besides, Mr. Dennison went far toward a satisfactory explanation of one case; and while Mr. intimated that there were other cases, he did not specify them.
I consider that the charge of dishonesty has failed; and it now seems to me more difficult to change my purpose than if the charge had never been made.
Yours as ever,
A. Lincoln