I have just enclosed to you the recommendation of Gov. Sprague that
Gen. James B. M. Potter be appointed a Paymaster. Immediately afterwards the
Paymaster General called protesting, as I wrote you, against all these
appointments being made from civil life. He said however there will be a large
number of these appointments to be made for the volunteers. Can we not fill the
first two from the Regular Army & then give Gen. Potter a chance?
We owe Rhode Island & Gov. Sprague a good deal because they give us
such good troops & no trouble.
A. Lincoln.
June 11. 1861
SOURCE: Abraham Lincoln Papers
at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
