President confers with Sec. Fessenden regarding appointment to West Point. Memorandum: Appointment of Franklin Yeaton, 27 December 1864, CW, 8:184-85.

Cabinet meets. Welles, Diary.

Lincoln sends for O. H. Browning to come to White House as early as convenient. Hay to Browning, 27 December 1864, Orville H. Browning Papers, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Springfield, IL.

Confers again with him on cotton trade; also inquires about releasing William N. Symington from Fort Lafayette, N.Y. Browning, Diary; Order Concerning William N. Symington, 27 December 1864, CW, 8:185.

Lincoln writes a note of thanks to College of New Jersey (Now Princeton University) President John Maclean, whose college trustees "conferred upon [Lincoln] the Degree of Doctor of Laws." Lincoln responds, "I am most thankful if my labors have seemed to conduce to the preservation of those institutions under which alone we can expect good government and in its train sound learning and the progress of the liberal arts." Abraham Lincoln to John Maclean, 27 December 1864, CW, 8:183-84.