At 10 o'clock in the morning, U.S. Senator Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, introduces a "Committee from New-York" to President Lincoln. The Committee is "confident that a force of at least 10.000" black "citizens" would "volunteer for the Service" if they could have General John C. Fremont as their commanding officer. A newspaper reports, "The President declared that he would gladly receive into the service not ten thousand but ten times ten thousand colored troops; expressed his determination to protect all who enlisted, and said that he looked to them for essential service in finishing the war. He believed that the command of them afforded scope for the highest ambition, and he would with all his heart offer it to Gen. Fremont." Remarks to New York Committee, 30 May 1863, CW, 6:239; New York Daily Tribune, 1 June 1863, 4:6; New York City Citizens Committee to Abraham Lincoln, 28 May 1863, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Discusses with Sen. Sumner (Mass.) problems of raising and organizing Negro troops in North. Abraham Lincoln to Charles Sumner, 1 June 1863, CW, 6:242-44.