Through Postmaster Gen. Blair, Lincoln advises Cong. Blair (Mo.) to return to army if not elected Speaker of House of Representatives. Abraham Lincoln to Montgomery Blair, 2 November 1863, CW, 6:554-55.

Interviews Cong. Kelley (Pa.) regarding speech of Postmaster Gen. Blair. Hay, Letters and Diary.

Receives David Barclay, Pennsylvania attorney with introduction from Asst. Atty. Gen. Coffey. Coffey to Lincoln, 2 November 1863, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Confers with General Schenck about possible violence at Maryland polls on election day, November 4, 1863. Hay, Letters and Diary.

Recognizes M. E. Rodriguez as consul of Mexican Republic at San Francisco. Washington Chronicle, 4 November 1863.

Judge David Wills of Gettysburg invites President to dedicate National Cemetery at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863 with "few appropriate remarks." Wills to Lincoln, 2 November 1863, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Writes Gov. Bradford (Md.) that first of three propositions in Schenck's Order No. 53 is revoked because it is too liable to abuse. "He assures me it is almost certain that violence will be used at some of the voting places on election day, unless prevented by his provostguards. . . . My order . . . assures the right of voting to all loyal men; and whether a man is loyal . . . [is] fix[ed] by his own oath. . . . In this struggle for the nation's life, I can not so confidently rely on those whose elections may have depended upon disloyal votes." Abraham Lincoln to Augustus W. Bradford, 2 November 1863, CW, 6:555-56; Abraham Lincoln to Augustus W. Bradford, 2 November 1863, CW, 6:556-58.

Assures J. H. Hackett who allowed Lincoln's letter to him to be published in newspaper: "My note to you I certainly did not expect to see in print; yet I have not been much shocked by the newspaper comments upon it. Those comments constitute a fair specimen of what has occurred to me through life. I have endured a great deal of ridicule without much malice; and have received a great deal of kindness, not quite free from ridicule. I am used to it." Abraham Lincoln to James H. Hackett, 2 November 1863, CW, 6:558-59.

[First appearance by "the young and distinguished tragedian," John Wilkes Booth, in Shakespeare's Richard III at Ford's Theatre. Daily National Republican (Washington, DC), 31 October 1863, 2d ed., 3:5; 2 November 1863, 2d ed., 2:2, 3:2, 5; Evening Star (Washington, DC), 3 November 1863, 2:1.]