President interviews Rabbi Arnold Fischel of New York regarding appointment of Jewish chaplains for army. National Republican (Washington, DC), 13 December 1861, 2:3; N.Y. Herald, 13 December 1861.

Senators Orville H. Browning (Ill.) and Lyman Trumbull (Ill.) escort Lincoln to Senate Chamber for proceedings marking death of Senator Edward D. Baker (Oreg.). The President sat beside Vice President Hannibal Hamlin during the eulogies. "Visits of the President to either House of Congress are of rare occurrence. This is the first instance of the kind certainly within the past quarter of a century." Browning, Diary; Evening Star (Washington, DC), 12 December 1861, 2d ed., 2:1; N.Y. Times, 12 December 1861; National Republican (Washington, DC), 14 December 1861, 2:2.

"The President of the United States having entered the Senate chamber, he was conducted to the chair of the Vice-President." Senate Journal, 38.

Lincoln receives account of funeral services for Baker in San Francisco by telegraph. Deverett to Lincoln, 11 December 1861, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Restates original purpose of his Administration: 1. to regard Union as unbroken; 2. to restore national laws over seceded states as rapidly as possible; 3. to protect lives and property of all citizens in seceded states who have not engaged in rebellion. N.Y. Times, 12 December 1861.