Dear Sir: Washington, August 26, 1863.
Your note, asking what you were to understand, was received yesterday. Monday morning, I sent the papers to the Secretary of
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Your note, asking what you were to understand, was received yesterday. Monday morning, I sent the papers to the Secretary of
the Interior, with an indorsement that my impression of the law was not changed, and that I desired him to take up the case and do his duty according to his view of the law. Yesterday I said the same thing to him verbally.
Now, my understanding is that the law has not assigned me, specifically, any duty in the case, but has assigned it to the Secretary of the Interior. It may be my general duty to direct him to act; which I have performed. When he shall have acted, if his action is not satisfactory, there may, or may not, be an appeal to me. It is a point I have not examined; but if then it be shown that the law gives such appeal, I shall not hesitate to entertain it when presented. Yours truly A LINCOLN