Yours, etc., JEFFERSON DAVIS.
Afterwards, and with the view that it should be shown to Mr. Davis, I wrote and delivered to Mr. Blair a letter, as follows, to wit:
WASHINGTON, January 18, 1865.
P. P. BLAIR, ESQ.
SIR:—Your having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the twelfth instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and shall continue ready to receive any agent whom he or any other influential person now resisting the national authority may informally send to me with the view of securing peace to the people of our one common country.
Yours, etc.,
A. LINCOLN. [ [!-- H2 anchor --] ]
Afterwards Mr. Blair dictated for and authorized me to make an entry on
the back of my retained copy of the letter last above recited, which entry is as follows: