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Fragment of Blair & Rives to Unknown, [1848]1
. . . . . .lished in the Congressional Globe as corrected. This will obviate the objection to which the reports of the Globe were subjected.
We shall make the reports as full and fair as possible, and, to effect this, all other matters in the Globe will be postponed; its first object being to suit it to the function to which it is dedicated—that of a full and fair Congressional record.
Any correction or extension of our reports which you may desire to make will be attended to by us, if you will write it out and give it to either of the folders behind the Speaker's chair, (with whom boxes are left to receive them,) before 2 o'clock, p.m., the day after the debate.
Respectfully,BLAIR & RIVES.2
[ endorsement ]
Abraham Lincoln
Messrs[Messieurs] Blair & RivesGentlemen:
The copies of the Globe and Appendix to which I am entitled, I shall thank you to retain and deliver to me at the end of the session–
RespectfullyA. Lincoln3
1The date of this fragment and Lincoln’s reply remains a mystery. Roy P. Basler, editor of The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, claims that the fragment was a circular Blair & Rives distributed to members of Congress concerning the intentions of the Congressional Globe in reporting debates in Congress. He infers that Blair & Rives distributed this circular in December 1847 or January 1848, and Lincoln replied soon thereafter, without attribution. Efforts to locate a full copy of the circular have been unsuccessful. Blair & Rives received the contract to publish the debates in December 1846; Lincoln does not specify to which session of the House of Representatives he is referring in his reply. The editors have retained Basler’s inferred date, but it is possible that the circular could have been distributed any time from December 1846 to March 1849, and Lincoln’s reply could have been written any time from December 1847 to March 1849.
Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 1:422; Cong. Globe, 29th Cong., 2nd Sess., 12, (1846).
2On August 7, 1846, the Senate passed a resolution authorizing the secretary of the Senate to contract with Blair & Rives and Gales & Seaton for the debates of Congress. In December 1846, the Senate entered into an exclusive contract with Blair & Rives to publish and furnish “Debates in Congress” to members of the Senate.
Cong. Globe, 29th Cong., 1st Sess., 1205 (1846); Cong. Globe, 29th Cong., 2nd Sess., 12 (1846).
3Lincoln wrote and signed this endorsement.
Lincoln was entitled to twelve copies of the Globe and appendix. On August 7, 1846, the Senate passed a resolution authorizing Senators to subscribe for twelve copies of the debates of Congress, published in either the Congressional Globe, published by Blair & Rives, or the Register of Debates, published by Gales & Seaton. On March 1, 1847, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution allowing its members to subscribe to the same number of copies of the Globe and appendices, and under the same terms and conditions, as members of Senate under the provisions of the Senate resolution of August 1846.
Cong. Globe, 29th Cong., 1st Sess., 1205 (1846); Cong. Globe, 29th Cong., 2nd Sess., 558 (1847).

Copy of Printed Letter, 1 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Association Files, Lincoln Collection, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (Springfield, IL).