The University of Michigan Library provides access to these materials for educational and research purposes, with permission from their copyright holder. If you decide to use any of these materials, you are responsible for making your own legal assessment and securing any necessary permission.
Your letter of the 30th. ult. was received last night. I very cheerfully comply with your request, so far as I am able.
As I remember, the House ordered the raising of two committees, one, of Arrangements, number indefinite, the other, thirty in number, to attend the remains of Mr. Adams to Massachusetts. By some mistake, as I understood, a committee of thirty was appointed
by the Speaker, as a committee of Arrangements, of which I was a member. At our first meeting, the mistake was discovered, and the committee being much too numerous for convenience, we delegated our authority to a sub-committee, of a smaller number of our own body, of which sub-committee, I was not a member. Whatever was done in the matter about which you enquire, I presume was done by this sub-committee; at all events I have no knowledge of it whatever. Mr. Hudson was Chairman of both the general, and the sub-committee, and who were the other members, of the latter I do not certainly recollect.
To your first special interrogatory, towit ``Were you consulted in regard to my exclusion from the services?'' I answer, I was not---perhaps because the arrangement I have stated excluded me from consultation on all points.
To the second to wit: ``Was objection made to me---and if so, on what ground was it placed?'' I answer I know nothing whatever on the point.
To the third, to wit ``Did my exclusion meet with your consent or approval?'' I answer, I knew nothing of the matter, and, of course, did not consent to, or approve of it; and I may add, that I knew nothing which should have justified me in any attempt to put a mark of disapprobation upon you.
So entirely ignorant was I, in relation to your having been excluded from the funeral services of Mr. Adams, that, until I received your letter, I should have given it as my recollection, that you did actually participate in those services. Yours respectfully
A. LINCOLN---