Lincoln writes Cong. Colfax (Ind.) about selection of Indiana representative in cabinet. Abraham Lincoln to Schuyler Colfax, 8 March 1861, CW, 4:278.

President's "first reception a motley crowd and terrible squeeze." Bates, Diary.

"The event was voted by all the oldest inhabitants to have been the most successful ever known there." Nicolay to Bates, 7 March 1861, 10 March 1861, John G. Nicolay Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles presents officers of navy in full uniform to President and Mrs. Lincoln. Welles to wife, 8 March 1861, Gideon Welles Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

For two and a half hours the President shakes hands with all who pass him. William O. Stoddard, Inside the White House in War Times (New York: C. L. Webster, 1890), 52.

Stops a guest of "towering proportions," saying he allows no one taller than himself to pass him unchallenged. Lincoln has to admit himself "beaten in height" by six-foot-seven-inch Mr. Hatcher of Loudon County, Virginia. At 10:30 P.M. Lincoln passes through East Room and withdraws to private apartment. Hundreds "gave it up in despair, and went home without seeing the new President." Evening Star (Washington, DC), 9 March 1861, 2:2.

Ladies connected with foreign legations call upon Mrs. Lincoln. Baltimore Sun, 9 March 1861.