York and myself last
summer, I understood him to complain that the enrolments in several of the
districts of that State had been neither accurately nor honestly made;
and in view of this, I, for the draft then immediately ensuing, ordered an
arbitrary reduction of the quotas in several of the districts wherein they
seemed too large, and said: "After this drawing, these four districts,
and also the seventeenth and twenty-ninth, shall be carefully re-enrolled,
and, if you please, agents of yours may witness every step of the
process." In a subsequent letter I believe some additional districts were
put into the list of those to be re-enrolled. My idea was to do the work
over according to the law, in presence of the complaining party, and
thereby to correct anything which might be found amiss. The commission,
whose work I am considering, seem to have proceeded upon a totally
different idea. Not going forth to find men at all, they have proceeded
altogether upon paper examinations and mental processes. One of their
conclusions, as I understand, is that, as the law stands, and attempting
to follow it, the enrolling officers could not have made the enrolments
much more accurately than they did. The report on this point might be
useful to Congress. The commission conclude that the quotas for the draft
should be based upon entire population, and they proceed upon this basis
to give a table for the State of New York, in which some districts are
reduced and some increased. For the now ensuing draft, let the quotas
stand as made by the enrolling officers, in the districts wherein this
table requires them to be increased; and let them be reduced according to
the table in the others: this to be no precedent for subsequent action.
But, as I think this report may, on full consideration, be shown to have
much that is valuable in it, I suggest that such consideration be given
it, and that it be especially considered whether its suggestions can be
conformed to without an alteration of the law.

Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL THOMAS.

WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, February 28, 1864.

GENERAL L. THOMAS, Louisville, Kentucky:

I see your despatch of yesterday to the Secretary of War.

I wish you would go to the Mississippi River at once, and take hold of and
be master in the contraband and leasing business. You understand it better
than any other man does. Mr. Miller's system doubtless is well intended,
but from