POLIT-ICO Play-Book, presented by UNION-PACIFIC RAILROAD – JAN 1, 1863 EDITION -- -ROSCOE CONKLING NEW YEAR’S PARTY -- Democrats livid over ‘Caesar’ Lincoln executive power – New aide-de-camp for Gen’l Sherman -- 250 years of chattel slavery to end -- JEBEDIAH ALLBRITTON IS 81! -- POLIT-ICO PRO launches reconstruction-contracting vertical

FIRST LOOK: Explosive ELIHU B. WOODINGTON pamphlet chronicling backbiting and unchivalrousnes in Lincoln cabinet. Excerpt today in Washington Periodic Miscellany. BOMBSHELL: Wm. Seward once mocked E.M. Stanton with comic doggerel! Blind quote: “This is what happens when you elect an untested one-term Congressman. Permitting White House rivalries is no way to proceed in this hamlet.” PARLOUR GAME BEGINS: Who are Woodington’s sources? Pamphlet goes on sale Tuesday for 5 cents; the lovely Mrs. Joseph Pulitzer hosts book party to-night.

DAVIS, STOWE TO POLIT-ICO: CSA President & Former Miss. Sen. Jefferson Davis and bestseller Harriet Beecher Stowe (“Uncle Tom’s Cabin”) will face off in biweekly columns on POLIT-ICO opinion pages. PRESS RELEASE: “We are pleased to be bringing together the opinions by the most respected writers from across the political spectrum.”

FOR POLICY JUNKIES: White House telegram, 9:00 a.m.: “LINCOLN ISSUES EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION STOP SLAVES IN REBEL AREAS DECLARED FREE STOP”

NOT-S0-GREAT EMANCIPATOR: “Lincoln Proclamation Stirs Controversy,” by Jethraux VandeHei: “Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation was bound to rile opponents who already viewed the president as high-handed and arbitrary… Senior White House officials assert that Lincoln has the authority to free slaves under the Constitution’s war-making provision. But Congressional Democrats have vowed to hold hearings, which could put border-state Republicans in an awkward position…. Lincoln is risking his presidency and his reputation on the uncertain notion that future generations will eventually appreciate the end of slavery.”