President calls special meeting of cabinet in morning, "purpose unknown." Philadelphia News, 20 March 1862.

Recognizes José Maria Duran as consul general of Mexican Republic at New York. Evening Star (Washington, DC), 22 March 1862, 2d ed., 2:4.

At 6 P.M. discusses with Sen. Browning (Ill.) gift of yacht from Cornelius Vanderbilt to navy. Browning introduces Peter Peckham and Mr. Taylor, inventors of new type of fuse. Browning, Diary.

In evening artist George P. A. Healy confers with President on placing in Executive Mansion series of paintings of Presidents ordered by Congress. Healy to Nicolay, 20 March 1862, John G. Nicolay Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

President Lincoln responds to Dr. Samuel B. Tobey, who is a prominent member of the Society of Friends in New England. Tobey wrote to Lincoln on behalf of the Society's members, known as Quakers, and suggested that the country's civil war could be resolved through peaceful "direct negotiation." Lincoln writes, "Engaged, as I am, in a great war, I fear it will be difficult for the world to understand how fully I appreciate the principles of peace . . . Grateful to the good people you represent for their prayers in behalf of our common country, I look forward hopefully to an early end of war, and return of peace." Society of Friends in New England to Abraham Lincoln, 5 February 1862; William Sprague to Abraham Lincoln, 8 February 1862, both in Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Abraham Lincoln to Samuel B. Tobey, 19 March 1862, CW, 5:165-66.