ust and fair, and yet to not lose time.

A. LINCOLN

To J. H. HACKETT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON August 17, 1863.

JAMES H. HACKETT, Esq.

MY DEAR SIR:--Months ago I should have acknowledged the receipt of your
book and accompanying kind note; and I now have to beg your pardon for not
having done so.

For one of my age I have seen very little of the drama. The first
presentation of Falstaff I ever saw was yours here, last winter or spring.
Perhaps the best compliment I can pay is to say, as I truly can, I am very
anxious to see it again. Some of Shakespeare's plays I have never read,
while others I have gone over perhaps as frequently as any un-professional
reader. Among the latter are Lear, Richard III., Henry VIII., Hamlet, and
especially Macbeth. I think nothing equals Macbeth. It is wonderful.

Unlike you gentlemen of the profession, I think the soliloquy in Hamlet
commencing "Oh, my offense is rank," surpasses that commencing "To be or
not to be." But pardon this small attempt at criticism. I should like to
hear you pronounce the opening speech of Richard III. Will you not soon
visit Washington again? If you do, please call and let me make your
personal acquaintance.

Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN

TO F. F. LOWE.

WASHINGTON, D. C., August 17, 1863.

HON. P. F. LOWE, San Francisco, Cal.:

There seems to be considerable misunderstanding about the recent movement
to take possession of the "New Almaden" mine. It has no reference to any
other mine or mines.

In regard to mines and miners generally, no change of policy by the
Government has been decided on, or even thought of, so far as I know.

The "New Almaden" mine was peculiar in this: that its occupants claimed to
be the legal owners of it on a Mexican grant, and went into court on that
claim. The case found its way into the Supreme Court of the United States,
and last term, in and by that court, the claim of the occupants was
decided to be utterly fraudulent. Thereupon it was considered the duty of
the Government by the Secretary of the Interior, the Attorney-General,
and myself to take possession of the premises; and the Attorney-General
carefully made out the writ and I signed it. It was not obtained
surreptitiously, although I suppose General Halleck thought it had been,
when he telegraphed, simply because he thought possession was about being
taken by a military order, while he knew no such order had passed through
his hands