Rear Adm. Dahlgren calls at White House for news of his son, Ulric. Abraham Lincoln to Benjamin F. Butler, 4 March 1864, CW, 7:222.

H. Villard interviews Lincoln for permission to publish letters exchanged between President and Secretary of the Treasury Chase relating to Pomeroy secret circular. Abraham Lincoln to Salmon P. Chase, 4 March 1864, CW, 7:222-23.

J. W. White, New York antislavery leader, calls on Lincoln and suggests that Gen. Grant be made general in chief responsible only to President. White to Lincoln, 4 March 1864, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

"A pleasant Cabinet meeting." Chase and Postmaster Gen. Blair absent. Secretaries Seward and Stanton have private laugh about what they regard as Chase's "dilemma" concerning decision to run for President. Welles, Diary.

President and family visit Grover's Theatre to see Edwin Booth play the title role in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Richelieu. This 1839 play originated the adage, "The pen is mightier than the sword." Washington Chronicle, 5 March 1864; Evening Star (Washington, DC), 4 March 1864, 1:5.

Lincoln deposits January salary warrant for $2,022.33 in Riggs Bank. Pratt, Personal Finances, 183.

Writes memorandum about churches: "I have written before, and now repeat, the United States Government must not undertake to run the churches. . . . It will not do for the United States to appoint trustees, supervisors, or other agents for the churches." Memorandum about Churches, 4 March 1864, CW, 7:223.