Sen. Browning (Ill.) visits White House in morning to say goodbye to President. Browning, Diary.

Lincoln writes to Maryland's U.S. Senator Reverdy Johnson, who is monitoring Louisiana's situation. Johnson reported that Louisiana residents resent Union General John Phelps's attempts to organize black troops. Lincoln responds, "[I]t is their own fault . . . that they are annoyed by the presence of . . . Phelps. . . . They . . . know the way to avert all this is simply to take their place in the Union upon the old terms. . . . I am a patient man—always willing to forgive on the Christian terms of repentance . . . Still I must save this government if possible. . . . I shall not surrender this game leaving any available card unplayed." Reverdy Johnson to Abraham Lincoln, 16 July 1862, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Abraham Lincoln to Reverdy Johnson, 26 July 1862, CW, 5:342-44; Benjamin F. Butler, Private and Official Correspondence of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler During the Period of the Civil War, 5 vols., (Norwood, MA: Plimpton Press, 1917), 2:145.

Gen. Mitchel reports to President his plans for opening Mississippi River. Official Records—Armies 441.