Monday, July
4, 1864.Washington, DC. | President
records agreement reached with newly appointed Sec. of Treasury William P.
Fessenden: "I will keep no person in office in his department, against his
express will, so long as I choose to continue him; . . . In Cabinet my view is
that in questions affecting the whole country there should be full and frequent
consultations." Memorandum
of Interview with William P. Fessenden, 4 July 1864,
CW, 7:423. Lincoln works
in President's Room at Capitol in morning, signing bills and conferring with
members of Congress. Hay, Letters and
Diary; Randall, Lincoln,
4:191. In conference with Sen. Chandler (Mich.), Lincoln doubts
legal right of Congress to act on "Wade-Davis Bill." Chandler angrily walks
out. President pockets bill. John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham
Lincoln: A History, 10 vols. (New York: Century, 1890),
9:120-21. Congressional committee notifies President of
adjournment unless he has further communications. Senate
Journal, 752. Cong. Arnold (Ill.) complains to
President that John L. Scripps, postmaster at Chicago and candidate for
Congress against him, is influencing votes of postal employees. Lincoln writes
Scripps: "My wish therefore is, that you will do just as you think fit with
your own suffrage in the case, and not constrain any of your subordinates to
other than he thinks fit with his. This is precisely the rule I inculcated and
adhered to on my part, when a certain other nomination now
recently made, was being canvassed for." Abraham
Lincoln to John L. Scripps, 4 July 1864, CW, 7:423-24. |