Lincoln’s Prose

Given where I now sit, I think it appropriate to call attention again to one of the most wonderful pieces of English prose that I know, a letter from Abraham Lincoln to a Mrs. Bixby who, it was believed at the time, had lost five sons in the ongoing Civil War.  (It turned out, eventually, that she had actually lost only two.)

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 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,

A. Lincoln

Posted from Springfield, Illinois