In Popejoy v. Wilson, Lincoln asks clerk to issue summons returnable next term.Photocopy.

Lincoln writes and files plaintiff's demurrer in Fithian v. Cunningham.Photocopy.

The House takes up private calendar. Lincoln votes aye on bill granting $280 to legal representatives of Cornelius Manning, deceased, for slave carried away by British fleet in 1814. It passes, 125-28, abolitionists opposing it.Globe.

[Shelby Circuit Court convenes.]

Circuit Court of Champaign County convenes for spring term, with larger attendance of lawyers than usual. "Hon. A. Lincoln of Springfield" heads list. Urbana Union, 22 May 1856.

Mrs. Lincoln buys 36 yards of "Buff Linen" and "1¾ yds. Bobbinet," charging $9.44 to Lincoln's account at John Williams & Co. Pratt, Personal Finances, 148.

Mrs. Lincoln buys $2 silk "mitts" at Smith's. Pratt, Personal Finances, 157.

Lincoln receives a delegation that traveled from Chicago to Springfield to personally inform Lincoln that the Republican Convention selected him to be the party's candidate for President of the United States. Lincoln remarks, "[I am] deeply, and even painfully sensible of the great responsibility which is inseparable from this high honor—a responsibility which I could almost wish had fallen upon some one of the far more eminent men and experienced statesmen whose distinguished names were before the Convention." Reply to Committee of the Republican National Convention, 19 May 1860, CW, 4:51; Illinois Daily State Journal (Springfield), 21 May 1860, 2:1; New York Daily Tribune, 25 May 1860, 6:4-5.

President attends church service. William O. Stoddard, Lincoln's Third Secretary: The Memoirs of William O. Stoddard, ed. by William O. Stoddard, Jr. (New York: Exposition Press, 1955), 84.

Sec. Seward, Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, and Lincoln drive to Great Falls, Va., returning about dark. Extracts from Meigs Diary, John G. Nicolay Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

[Mrs. Lincoln in Cambridge, Mass., with Robert. Baltimore Sun, 20 May 1861]

President declares Gen. Hunter's General Orders No. 11 freeing slaves in Dept. of South void, and "that neither General Hunter, nor any other commander, or person, has been authorized by the Government of the United States, to make proclamations declaring the slaves of any State free." [See May 9, 1862.] Proclamation Revoking General Hunter's Order of Military Emancipation of May 9, 1862, 19 May 1862, CW, 5:222-24.

Congressional delegation from Maryland, with 50 constituents from Prince George's County, visits President regarding Fugitive Slave Law. Lincoln assures delegation that Gen. Wadsworth will enforce law in District of Columbia. Reply to Maryland Slaveholders, 19 May 1862, CW, 5:224; N.Y. Tribune, 20 May 1862; Boston Advertiser, 20 May 1862.

Appoints Asst. Sec. of Treasury George Harrington "to discharge the duties of Secretary of the Treasury, during the absence of Salmon P. Chase." Appointment of George Harrington, 19 May 1862, CW, 5:221.

President proclaims convention with Peru whereby settlement will be made on two captured ships. Washington Chronicle, 29 May 1863.

President declares null and void exequatur heretofore given Charles Hunt as consul of Belgium at St. Louis. Washington Star, 20 May 1864; Proclamation Revoking Recognition of Charles Hunt, 19 May 1864, CW, 7:352.

Lincoln writes to staunch abolitionist U.S. Senator Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts. Lincoln introduces Mary Elizabeth Booth, whose husband, Major Lionel Booth, a black officer, was killed in battle on April 12, at Fort Pillow, Tennessee. Lincoln writes, "She makes a point . . . very worthy of consideration which is, widows and children infact, of colored soldiers who fall in our service, be placed in law, the same as if their marriages were legal, so that they can have the benefit of the provisions made the widows & orphans of white soldiers. Please see & hear Mrs. Booth." Abraham Lincoln to Charles Sumner, 19 May 1864, CW, 10:243-44; Roy P. Basler, "And for His Widow and His Orphan," Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress 27, no. 4 (October 1970): 291-94.