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My dear Wife. All as well as usual, and no particular trouble any way. I put the money into the Treasury at five per cent, with the previlege of withdrawing it any time upon thirty days' notice. I suppose you are glad to learn this. Tell dear Tad, poor ``Nanny Goat,'' is lost; and Mrs. Cuthbert & I are in distress about it. The
day you left Nanny was found resting herself, and chewing her little cud, on the middle of Tad's bed. But now she's gone! The gardener kept complaining that she destroyed the flowers, till it was concluded to bring her down to the White House. This was done, and the second day she had disappeared, and has not been heard of since. This is the last we know of poor ``Nanny''
The weather continues dry, and excessively warm here.
Nothing very important occurring. The election in Kentucky has gone very strongly right. Old Mr. Wickliffe2Jump to section got ugly, as you know, ran for Governor, and is terribly beaten. Upon Mr. Crittendens death, Brutus Clay, Cassius' brother, was put on the track for Congress, and is largely elected. Mr. Menzies,3Jump to section who, as we thought, behaved very badly last session of Congress, is largely beaten in the District opposite Cincinnati, by Green Clay Smith, Cassius Clay's nephew. But enough. Affectionately A. LINCOLN
[1] ALS, DLC-RTL.The unaddressed envelope with the letter is endorsed by Lincoln ``Letter about `Nanny goat.' '' The remarkable story of how so rare a domestic letter should have been preserved in the Lincoln Papers is told in a letter from D. P. Bacon, postmaster at LeRoy, Genesee County, New York, to Lincoln, April 25, 1864:
``When in the Army of the Potomac a few weeks ago, I met a young man, who in the course of conversation remarked that he had an original letter of the President. Expressing a desire to see it he complied & produced the enclosed. On a further request that he would allow me to retain it, he assented. And what under other circumstances I should have greatly prized (an original letter of the Prest), a private & domestic one like this, all the `proprieties' seemed to forbid that I should retain. On my return through Washington I thought to have returned it, but being presented . . . at one of your public receptions (the only occasion of seeing you), the opportunity was not favorable. I therefore now enclose it,---trusting that after so long & adventurous a journey it may reach its original source. Had it been a fragment of the original Emancipation Proclamation, or the Syracuse letter [Albany letter to Erastus Corning?] it would not probably have thus found its way back to the author.
``I will only remark that I know nothing of the circumstances by which it came into the possession of the party who delivered it to me. His only answer to my inquiry on the subject was the vague one, `it was picked up in the Army.' It is evident from its soiled condition that it has had a `career.'
``Hoping that you will pardon this intrusion I remain . . . .'' (DLC-RTL).
The mystery of how the letter came into a soldier's possession remains unexplained.
[2] Charles A. Wickliffe.
[3] John W. Menzies.