President directs U.S. marshals to supply "decent lodging and subsistence" to political prisoners. DNA—WR RG 108, Off. Hdqrs. Army, Register of Letters Received, LXX, 302; Abraham Lincoln to United States Marshal, 31 July 1861, CW, 4:466.

Confers with Sen. Browning (Ill.), Cong. William P. Sheffield (R.I.), and Pope of Bloomington, Ill. Browning, Diary.

Lincoln and Sec. Seward visit hospital at Georgetown; President shakes hands with wounded. N.Y. Times, 2 August 1861.

President approves act empowering Chief Executive to decide when a state of insurrection exists. Stat. L., XII, 284.