January 22, 1862
Secretary of war Edwin M. Stanton seeks to assign Adjutant Lorenzo Thomas to attend President Lincoln, who rejects the suggestion saying it “ would be an uncompensating incumbrance both to him and me. When it shall occur to me to go anywhere, I wish to be free to go at once . . . It is better too, for the public service, that he shall give his time to the business of his office, and not to personal attendance on me.” Stanton, nevertheless, would not give up seeking an assignment for Thomas outside the War Department.
Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War 
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