President empowers Col. Robert Anderson to recruit three-year troops from Kentucky and western part of Virginia. Order to Robert Anderson, 7 May 1861, CW, 4:359.

During morning Col. Ellsworth visits White House. Hay, Letters and Diary.

Lincoln, son Tad, and John Hay, assistant secretary to President, attend exercises of Ellsworth's New York Fire Brigade in square behind Capitol. N.Y. Tribune, 8 May 1861; Hay, Letters and Diary.

John Hay relates items of Illinois news to Lincoln and hears comments on disposition of Secretary of State William H. Seward. William R. Thayer, The Life and Letters of John Hay, 2 vols. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1915), 1:107.

President, Gen. Scott, and members of cabinet review 3,300 New Jersey Volunteers under General Theodore Runyon. Evening Star (Washington, DC), 8 May 1861, 3:2.

Committee from convention of governors of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin held in Cleveland, Ohio, visits President and renews pledge of resources and men. Memorandum, 7 May 1861, John G. Nicolay Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

President acknowledges letter from Regent Captains of Republic of San Marino conferring citizenship upon him. Abraham Lincoln to the Regent Captains of the Republic of San Marino, 7 May 1861, CW, 4:360.

Sen. John Sherman (Ohio) and friends call on President hoping to provide plan by which Capt. William T. Sherman (resigned) will return to army. Ewing to "Dear Brother," 8 May 1861, William T. Sherman Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

With Nicolay and Hay, President discusses the existing contest, remarking that "the real question involved in it, (as he had about made up his mind, though he should still think further about it, while writing his message) was whether a full and representative government had the right and power to protect and maintain itself. Admit the right of a minority to secede at will, and the question for such secession would almost as likely be any other as the slavery question." Memorandum, 7 May 1861, John G. Nicolay Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.