January 31, 1865

<div2 part='N' sample='complete' type='Revised' org='uniform'>
         <dateline> 
            <date value='1865-01-31'>Tuesday, January 31,
  1865.</date> 
            <place key='38.8833, -77.0333' teiForm='name'>Washington, DC</place>. </dateline>
         <p> Cabinet meets. 
  <bibl default='NO'>Welles, <title corresp='books_Welles1'>Diary</title>.</bibl> 
         </p>
         <p>
  President Lincoln writes to Secretary of State William H. Seward and instructs
  him to "proceed to Fortress-Monroe, Virginia," to "informally confer" with a
  Confederate peace commission, which includes Alexander H. Stephens, John A.
  Campbell, and Robert M. T. Hunter. Lincoln directs Seward to inform the
  participants of the President's stance on "national authority...Slavery...[and
  a] cessation of hostilities." Lincoln pledges that he will ponder any of the
  commission's proposals as long as they are "not inconsistent with" the
  positions that he has outlined. <bibl default='NO'>
               <xref from='ROOT' url='http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=lincoln;rgn=div1;view=text;idno=lincoln8;node=lincoln8%3A541' targOrder='U' to='DITTO'>Abraham
  Lincoln to William H. Seward</xref>, 31 January 1865,
  <title corresp='books_Basler2'>CW</title>, 8:250-51.</bibl> 
         </p>
         <p> O. H.
  Browning and J. W. Singleton arrive at White House as President leaves for
  theater. They arrange meeting for following day. <bibl default='NO'>Browning,
  <title corresp='books_Browning'>Diary</title>.</bibl> 
         </p>
         <p> At 11 P.M.
  Lincoln locates document relative to Confederate commissioners at Fortress
  Monroe and sends it to Sec. Seward. <bibl default='NO'>Seward to Lincoln, 31 January 1865,
  Robert Todd Lincoln Collection of Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress,
  Washington, DC.</bibl> 
         </p>
         <p> Deposits November salary warrant for $1,981.67
  in Riggs Bank. <bibl default='NO'>Pratt, <title corresp='books_Pratt3'>Personal
  Finances</title>, 183.</bibl> 
         </p>
         <p> Thanks Cong. Cox (Ohio) for speech: "I
  sought it for the humor said to be in it; but while it meets expectations in
  that respect, it has a far higher merit." <bibl default='NO'>
               <xref from='ROOT' url='http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=lincoln;rgn=div1;view=text;idno=lincoln8;node=lincoln8%3A538' targOrder='U' to='DITTO'>Abraham
  Lincoln to Samuel S. Cox</xref>, 31 January 1865,
  <title corresp='books_Basler2'>CW</title>, 8:249.</bibl> 
         </p>
      </div2>