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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Letter to Mrs. Bixby
Dear Madam,--
I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.
I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
Abraham Lincoln
Nov. 21, 1864
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As it turns out, only two of her sons were confirmed casualties of the war. Two others either deserted and never came home, or died in prison camps. One made it home alive.
One.
Leaving all that aside - along with the question of whether this was written by Lincoln himself or by John Hay, his aide - the fathomless pathos of the sentiment burning in the words stands on its own, written in the fourth year of the butcher's bill.
Aristus
(66,386 posts)Centered around the contextual use of the word 'beguile'.
It's a beautifully written letter, and it takes nothing away from Lincoln that he may not have written it himself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bixby_letter
WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)Presidents didn't write most of their correspondence.
Aristus
(66,386 posts)And I liked John Hay until I found out that he was hysterically anti-union...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bread-Winners
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)A few too many fancy words.
malthaussen
(17,204 posts)Rex
(65,616 posts)Those that exist only in the mind.
A HERETIC I AM
(24,370 posts)Now THAT is acting, in my opinion.
"We are going to find him and get him the HELL out of there."