President suspends White House public receptions "for the present." Washington Chronicle, 19 February 1865.

Notifies James Gordon Bennett of decision to nominate him as minister to France. Abraham Lincoln to James G. Bennett, 20 February 1865, CW, 8:307-8.

Writes Gov. Thomas C. Fletcher (Mo.): "It seems that there is now no organized military force of the enemy in Missouri and yet that destruction of property and life is rampant every where. . . . Each leaving all others alone solves the problem. . . . Please consider whether it may not be well to suggest this to the now afflicted people of Missouri." Abraham Lincoln to Thomas C. Fletcher, 20 February 1865, CW, 8:308.