Abraham Lincoln papers

1 From Abraham Lincoln to Lydia Bixby , November 21, 1864

1 There is no handwritten copy of this famous letter known, either in this collection or elsewhere. The only source for its text is a newspaper account in the Boston Transcript for November 25, 1864. The document at hand appears to be a photographic copy of the notice in the Transcript. At the request of Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrew, a letter was sent over the president's signature to a Boston widow, Mrs. Lydia Bixby, who was reported to be the mother of five sons killed fighting for the Union. In spite of the fact that it has long been known that Mrs. Bixby was probably a Confederate sympathizer and that only two of her sons had actually been killed, the letter is among the most admired of all writings ascribed to Lincoln.

Questions about its authenticity have centered on stories that this was one of the many letters that John Hay, Lincoln's secretary, had written for Lincoln's signature. Accounts began to surface in the early 20th century that Hay had privately admitted his authorship of the Bixby letter. It has recently been shown that Hay kept clippings of the letter in his literary scrapbooks, and that his writings betray a fondness for words that were not in Lincoln's vocabulary. Two of the words in the letter's most famous passages, for example — “beguile” and “assuage” — do not appear in any of Lincoln's other writings.

For a full statement of the case for Hay's authorship, see Michael Burlingame, “The Authorship of the Bixby Letter,” in Michael Burlingame, ed., At Lincoln's Side: John Hay's Civil War Correspondence and Selected Writings, (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000), 169-84.

Executive Mansion,}

Washington, Nov. 21, 1864. }

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 words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.

Abraham Lincoln papers http://www.loc.gov/resource/mal.4360200 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,

A. LINCOLN.

Abraham Lincoln papers http://www.loc.gov/resource/mal.4360200