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---
Annotation
[1] ALS, IHi. Reverend Henry Slicer was a Methodist minister and the chaplain of the Senate.
[2] John Quincy Adams was stricken in the House on February 21 and died in the speaker's room on the 23rd. Accommodations were limited for the funeral service conducted in the House, and according to newspaper accounts no reservations were made for the clergymen of the city. The Senate chaplain was not provided for in the House ceremony, and, probably as the result of an oversight, Reverend Slicer's feelings seem to have been ruffled.
[3] Charles Hudson, Massachusetts Whig representative, was a minister of the Universalist Church.