Lincoln writes to local resident William G. Anderson, who seeks Lincoln's clarification regarding an apparent disagreement between the two men. Anderson explained, "I think you were the aggressor. Your words imported insult." Lincoln denies that he was the "aggressor." He writes, "I entertain no unkind feeling to you, and none of any sort upon the subject, except a sincere regret that I permitted myself to get into such an altercation." William G. Anderson to Abraham Lincoln, 30 October 1840, Tennessee Historical Society Collection, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, TN; Abraham Lincoln to William G. Anderson, 31 October 1840, CW, 1:211.