Annotation
[1] ALS-P, ISLA; LS copy, DLC-RTL. The autograph letter is incorrectly dated ``1862,'' but the signed copy is correctly dated. Two letters from McClernand dated December 29, 1862, were carried to Lincoln by Major Walter B. Scates (see Lincoln's endorsement to Stanton, January 7, supra). The lengthy letter to which Lincoln here replied reported that, ``A gentleman of the first respectability just arrived from the rebel army . . . brings suggestions of . . . import from officers of high rank in the rebel service, who were formerly my warm personal and political friends.
``These officials desire the restoration of peace and are represented to be willing to wheel their columns into the line of that policy. They admit that the South West and the North West are geographically and commercially identified. . . .'' (DLC-RTL).