WASHINGTON, January 18, 1865.
F.P. BLAIR, Esq.
SIR: Your having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the 12th 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.
Afterwards, but before Major Eckert had departed, the following dispatch was received from General Grant:
OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH,
War Department.
The following telegram received at Washington January 31, 1865, from City Point, Va., 10.30 a.m., January 30, 1865:
"His Excellency ABRAHAM LINCOLN,
"President of the United States:
"The following communication was received here last evening: