.

Dr. JOHN MACLEAN:

MY DEAR SIR:--I have the honor to acknowledge the reception of your note
of the twentieth of December, conveying the announcement that the Trustees
of the College of New Jersey had conferred upon me the degree of Doctor of
Laws.

The assurance conveyed by this high compliment, that the course of the
Government which I represent, has received the approval of a body of
gentlemen of such character and intelligence, in this time of public
trial, is most grateful to me.

Thoughtful men must feel that the fate of civilization upon this continent
is involved in the issue of our contest. Among the most gratifying proofs
of this conviction is the hearty devotion everywhere exhibited by our
schools and colleges to the national cause.

I am most thankful if my labors have seemed to conduct to the preservation
of those institutions, under which alone we can expect good government and
in its train sound learning, and the progress of the liberal arts.

I am, sir, very truly, your obedient servant,

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT NASHVILLE.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 28, 1864.

OFFICER IN COMMAND at Nashville, Tenn.:

Suspend execution of James R. Mallory, for six weeks from Friday the
thirtieth of this month, which time I have given his friends to make
proof, if they can, upon certain points.

A. LINCOLN,

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, D. C., December 28, 1864. 5.30 p.m.

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.:

If there be no objection, please tell me what you now understand of the
Wilmington expedition, present and prospective.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 29, 1864.

MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER:

There is a man in Company I, Eleventh Connecticut Volunteers, First
Brigade, Third Division, Twenty-fourth Army Corps, at Chapin's Farm, Va.;
under the assumed name of William Stanley, but whose real name is Frank
R. Judd, and who is under arrest, and probably about to be tried for
desertion. He is the son of our present minister to Prussia, who is a
close personal friend of Senator Trumbull and myself. We are not willing
for the boy to be shot, but we think it as well that his trial go
regularly on, suspending execution until further order from me and
reporting to me.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO COLONEL WARNER.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 30, 186