Delegation of Western men, including two congressmen, calls upon President to offer two Negro regiments from Indiana. President agrees to use men as laborers, but will not make them soldiers. Remarks to Deputation of Western Gentlemen, 4 August 1862, CW, 5:356-57; Evening Star (Washington, DC), 6 August 1862, 2d ed., 2:2.

Orders draft of 300,000 militia to serve for nine months. N.Y. Tribune, 5 August 1862; Evening Star (Washington, DC), 5 August 1862, 2d ed., 2:2.

President Lincoln writes to French author Agénor-Etienne de Gasparin, who wrote a book about America's Civil War, and who had written to Lincoln regarding the North's troop strength. Lincoln confides that he may have to institute "a draft." He explains that many men are "pay[ing] and send[ing] substitutes" rather than enlisting themselves. Lincoln adds, "I can only say that I have acted upon my best convictions without selfishness or malice, and that by the help of God, I shall continue to do so." Abraham Lincoln to Agénor-Etienne de Gasparin, 4 August 1862, CW, 5:355-56; Mary L. Booth, translator, The Uprising of a Great People, The United States in 1861, 3rd ed., (New York: Charles Scribner, 1861); Agenor-Etienne Gasparin to Abraham Lincoln, 18 July 1862, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.