Little is Known of this Day in the Life of President Lincoln

March 22, 1862

Only one letter was written by President Lincoln regarding a minor patronage matter.  Much of what is known about President Lincoln’s activities comes from the diaries of colleagues like Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, and Attorney General Edward Bates, but there were no meetings that day at the White House for them to report.  Neither did Lincoln aides John G. Nicolay, John Hay or William O. Stoddard write newspaper articles, diary entries, or letters that can be used to reconstruct his activities.  Without letters or newspaper articles, it is hard to know what the President was doing.

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