President raises blockade on port of Brownsville, Tex. Proclamation Concerning Blockade, 18 February 1864, CW, 7:192-93; Evening Star (Washington, DC), 19 February 1864, 2d ed., 2:1.

Baltimore Constitutional Convention adopts resolutions endorsing Lincoln for reelection. Evening Star (Washington, DC), 19 February 1864, 2d ed., 2:2.

President interviews Gen. George R. Davis of Troy, N.Y., regarding "a case of peculiar hardship." Griswold to Lincoln, 18 February 1864, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Lincoln writes to Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrew, who complained, "[F]reemen and refugees from slavery, desiring to pass northward . . . seeking to better their fortunes . . . are forcibly and against their will detained." Lincoln suspects that Andrew's overriding objective is "to raise colored troops." Lincoln responds, "If . . . it be really true that Massachusetts wishes to afford a permanent home . . . for . . . colored persons . . . I shall be only too glad to know it. . . . I would not for a moment hinder from going, any person who is free by the terms of the proclamation or any of the acts of Congress." John A. Andrew to Abraham Lincoln, 12 February 1864, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Abraham Lincoln to John A. Andrew, 18 February 1864, CW, 7:191.