Lincoln writes Joseph Brackett regarding pre-emption claims he had tried to file May 9, 1857. "I have been to the Land Office two or three times about it, and, for the last time, this morning. The Register will not receive and file the pre-emption proofs as you desire. He conceives it to be his duty to refuse." Abraham Lincoln to Joseph W. Brackett, 27 November 1857, CW, 2:427.