President discusses with Col. Blair value of conference of Border State congressmen on compensated emancipation. Nicolay, Lincoln's Secretary, 134-35.

At 10 A.M. sends carriage for Sen. Browning's (Ill.) family. Browning, Diary.

Receives report from Gen. Wool at Fortress Monroe, Va., that Confederate ship Merrimac entered Hampton Roads preceding day and destroyed USS Cumberland and USS Congress, and that other ships and Fortress Monroe itself are in danger. Calls emergency cabinet meeting to discuss defense measures in event Merrimac starts toward Washington. Notebook, February 1862, John G. Nicolay Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC; The Annals of the War, Written by Leading Participants North and South, Originally Published in the Philadelphia Weekly Times (Philadelphia, PA: Times Publishing, 1879), 23-26.

Drives with Browning to Navy Yard about 2 P.M.; Comdr. Dahlgren returns with them to White House. Browning, Diary; Extracts from Dahlgren Diary, John G. Nicolay Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Most of cabinet at White House in afternoon, but not by appointment. Sec. Stanton divulges information that preparations are under way to stop Merrimac from reaching Washington by blocking river channel. The Annals of the War, Written by Leading Participants North and South, Originally Published in the Philadelphia Weekly Times (Philadelphia, PA: Times Publishing, 1879), 26.

President awaits news of battle between USS Monitor and Merrimac at telegraph office in evening with members of cabinet. Bates, Telegraph Office, 117.

After 4 P.M. dispatch reaches War Office describing fight between Monitor and Merrimac from 8 A.M. to 12 M., when Merrimac withdrew. Lincoln and two cabinet members present. Lincoln walks to White House. Notebook, February 1862, John G. Nicolay Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Lucius E. Chittenden, Recollections of President Lincoln and his Administration (New York: Harper, 1891), 224.

Asks Henry J. Raymond to reconsider compensated emancipation and print another article in New York Times. "One half-day's cost of this war would pay for all the slaves in Delaware, at four hundred dollars per head." Abraham Lincoln to Henry J. Raymond, 9 March 1862, CW, 5:152-53.