ossibly thirty, days. As
it stands, the best I can say is that every volunteer you will present us
within thirty days from this date, fit and ready to be mustered into the
United States service, on the usual terms, shall be pro tanto an abatement
of your quota of the draft. That quota I can now state at eight thousand
seven hundred and eighty-three (8783). No draft from New Jersey, other
than for the above quota, will be made before an additional draft, common
to [all] the States, shall be required; and I may add that if we get well
through with this draft, I entertain a strong hope that any further
one may never be needed. This expression of hope, however, must not be
construed into a promise.

As to conducting the draft by townships, I find it would require such a
waste of labor already done, and such an additional amount of it, and such
a loss of time, as to make it, I fear, inadmissible.

Your obedient servant,

A. LINCOLN.

P. S.--Since writing the above, getting additional information, I
am enabled to say that the draft may be made in subdistricts, as the
enrolment has been made, or is in process of making. This will amount
practically to drafting by townships, as the enrollment subdistricts are
generally about the extent of townships. A.L.

To GENERAL G. G. MEADE. (Private.)

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 27, 1863.

MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE:

I have not thrown General Hooker away; and therefore I would like to know
whether it would be agreeable to you, all things considered, for him to
take a corps under you, if he himself is willing to do so. Write me in
perfect freedom, with the assurance that I will not subject you to any
embarrassment by making your letter or its contents known to any one. I
wish to know your wishes before I decide whether to break the subject
to him. Do not lean a hair's breadth against your own feelings, or your
judgment of the public service, on the idea of gratifying me.

Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL A. B. BURNSIDE.

WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, July 27, 1863.

MAJOR-GENERAL BURNSIDE, Cincinnati, O.:

Let me explain. In General Grant's first despatch after the fall of
Vicksburg, he said, among other things, he would send the Ninth Corps to
you. Thinking it would be pleasant to you, I asked the Secretary of War to
telegraph you the news. For some reasons never mentioned to us by General
Grant, they have not been sent, though we have seen o