DALLAS, Nov. 17, 2008
Famed Lincoln Letter Found In Texas
Museum May Have Authentic Copy Of President's Eloquent Correspondence To Grieving Mother
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Alan Olson, Director of Collections with the Dallas Historical Society, holds what is believed to be an official government copy of a letter written by President Abraham Lincoln to a grieving Civil War mother, at the Hall of State at Fair Park in Dallas, Nov. 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
The famed Bixby Letter, which the Dallas Historical Society is getting appraised as it prays for a potential windfall, has a fascinating history.
The original has never been found. Historians debate whether Lincoln wrote it. Its recipient, Lydia Bixby, was no fan of the president. And not all her sons died in the war.
The letter, written with "the best of intentions" 144 years ago next week, is "considered one of the finest pieces of American presidential prose," said Alan Olson, curator for the Dallas group. "It's still a great piece of writing, regardless of the truth in the back story."
Historians say Lincoln wrote the letter at the request of a Massachusetts official, who passed along news of a Boston woman grieving the loss of her five sons. The letter is addressed to "Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Mass." and begins with an acknowledgment that nothing written could possibly make a grief-stricken mother feel better about such a horrific loss.
"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," Lincoln wrote.
After thanking Bixby on behalf of a grateful nation, Lincoln wrote that he would pray that God relieve her anguish and leave her with only the "cherished memory of the loved" along with "the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom."
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The letter, as was the president's custom in his personal correspondence, is signed "A Lincoln."If it's not worth a lot of money — too bad. It's still a fascinating story and it's still a great display piece.
Curator Alan Olson"It is so beautifully written," said James Cornelius, curator of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill. "It is an extraordinarily sensitive expression of condolence."
There was renewed interest in the letter after it was read in the 1998 film "Saving Private Ryan." It also sparked a new round of debate centering on Lincoln's authorship and the fate of Bixby's sons.
Evidence indicates two of Bixby's sons died, a third was a deserter, and a fourth ended up in a prisoner-of-war camp, Cornelius said. A fifth is believed to have received a discharge, but his fate is unknown.
Historians have also argued that John Hay, one of Lincoln's secretaries, wrote the letter. Hay was an accomplished writer who wrote a biography of Lincoln and later became ambassador to the United Kingdom.
(AP (file))
The letter received widespread attention days after it was written. Bixby either sent it to the Boston Evening Transcript or a postal worker intercepted it and tipped off the newspaper, which reprinted the letter, Cornelius said.
The touching note came about two months after Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman had broken through Atlanta on his march to the coast and about two weeks after Lincoln won re-election. Union spirits were high, Cornelius said.
"The letter was so popular that it was published in newspapers and people copied and sent it to relatives," Olson said. "That letter and the words in it affected the nation. It tugged at people's hearts at the time of a really bloody period in America."
Olson hopes he has an official government copy of the Bixby Letter and not something one relative sent to another. In an era before photocopiers or carbon paper, secretaries hand-copied documents to be retained for their files, he said.
The paper and ink appear authentic to the Civil War era, he said. The historical society has asked an expert at Christie's auction house in New York for an opinion.
Stacy McDermott, an assistant editor at The Papers of Abraham Lincoln, estimated that an official government copy of the Bixby Letter would fetch millions of dollars.
But Cornelius doubts the letter is authentic. He said the Lincoln White House would have been unlikely to make a copy of such a personal letter and points out that a pair of rival New York companies sold copies of the letter as keepsakes beginning in the 1890s.
Olson said he stumbled across the letter over the summer in the historical society archives, which contain about 3 million items. He said he does not know how or why the letter ended up in the archives.
The discovery, Olson said, will provide a teachable moment even if it doesn't prove to be a bankable one.
"If it's not worth a lot of money - too bad," Olson said. "It's still a fascinating story and it's still a great display piece."
Text Of The Bixby Letter
Executive Mansion, Washington, Nov 21, 1864
To Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Mass.
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 (5) 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
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Add a Comment See all 27 Comments
- The Civil War was so horrible, and deadly, I often wonder what would have happened if we just let the southern states secede from the Union without a fight. Posted by LMartinK at 11:50 PM : Nov 17, 2008
*** We would have become 2 very weak nations!
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Posted by auscross1277 at 12:16 AM : Nov 18, 2008
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Possibly, but who knows. We could have become one strong nation and one weak nation. Unless the south built up a huge manufaturing base in anticipation of the end of slavery and the plantation system, I fear we would have two borders with illegal immigrants flooding our country looking for prosperity. - Reply to this comment
- Nice bit of prose. Hallmark quality.
And Lastdance134, don`t worry. If Bush does a "blanket pardon", he`ll also classify that as Top Secret so you`ll never hear of it anyway.
Bada bang, bada bing - Reply to this comment
- We would not have two weak nations but a collection of tiny nations. The war wasn''t even over in the south and Georiga was saying it was going to leave the Confederacy. The what is now the Midwest, (Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan) would have seeceded next. Oregon, Washington and Idaho would have left, (even if the later two were not yet states).
- Reply to this comment
- The Civil War was so horrible, and deadly, I often wonder what would have happened if we just let the southern states secede from the Union without a fight. Posted by LMartinK at 11:50 PM : Nov 17, 2008
*** We would have become 2 very weak nations! - Reply to this comment
- The Civil War was so horrible, and deadly, I often wonder what would have happened if we just let the southern states secede from the Union without a fight.
Posted by LMartinK at 11:50 PM : Nov 17, 2008
*** Eventually... during one of the world wars... we would have fought against each other..... - Reply to this comment
- Funny, I thought Lincoln retired a couple of terms ago. Gotta keep up on current events.
- Reply to this comment
- Make sure Dan Rather finds out about this letter.
- Reply to this comment
- famous or not, the intent was well made. The point is as relavent today as it was then. A well deserved salute is in order to its true author... whomever.
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- Joe Biden said that he actually wrote the letter. He was intending to email it to John Wilkes Boothe in attempt to save Lincoln''s life, but missent it to Sam Houston. Davy Crockett escaped the Alamo and brought it to Dallas. He discoved the city didn''t exist yet so he put it in a peanut butter jar where the future museum would be built.
- Reply to this comment
- Just think, if Bush could spell, he would have written a letter to someone too. Instead of just lying to send them to war.
- Reply to this comment
- We also found the Septuagint.
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- Whether Mr. Lincoln''s secretary, John Hay, had more than a "hand" in writing this letter is debatable. However, Mr. Hay''s subsequent role in US foreign affairs deserves more than the mention that he served as the US Ambassador to the Court of St. James. Mr. Hay, a distinguished poet and graduate of Brown University, also "...was named Secretary of State and helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris of 1898. Hay continued serving as Secretary of State after Theodore Roosevelt succeeded McKinley, serving until his own death in 1905.
His contributions included the adoption of an Open Door Policy in China (announced on January 2, 1900) which may have been a contributing factor in the Boxer Rebellion, and the preparations for the Panama Canal. He negotiated the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty (1901), the Hay-Herran Treaty (1903), and the Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty (1903), all of which were instrumental clearing the way for the construction and usage of the Canal.
In all, he brought about more than 50 treaties. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hay).
Give the man his due: John Hay was a giant among diplomats, regardless of who actually wrote the letter of condolence. - Reply to this comment
- Posted by MissWasilla at 04:10 PM : Nov 17, 2008
Was the reason why FDR was not a Republican he liked and believed in what his uncle stood for.
The Republicans of Lincoln''s day and Teddy''s were Liberals not conservatives. When the Democrats kicked out the conservatives they went to the Republican party and that was all she wrote. - Reply to this comment
- Eloquence is not restricted to the distant past.
%u201CPeople the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.%u201D
- Bill Clinton 2008 - Reply to this comment
- There must be suspitions of anything from Texas now.
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Republicans love to call themselves the Party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, another Big Lie which disregards U.S. history completely.
The ''Party of Lincoln'' ended with Theodore Roosevelt, who got so fed up with the elitist turn the Republicans had taken that he formed a new political party, the ''Bull Moose'' progressives.
The last Lincoln Republican, Roosevelt got bounced out of the GOP during the presidential race of 1912, when he ran on a platform calling for revision of banking to assure an elastic currency, required health insurance in industry, new inheritance and income taxes, women''s suffrage, social welfare legislation, worker''s compensation, farm relief, improvement of America''s trade infrastructure, limitation of military armaments, recall of judicial decisions, and easier amendment of the U.S. Constitution. So of course the Republicans kicked him out!
And they''ve never looked back. Not once. They rolled over for their Big Business backers, and Honest Abe rolled over in his grave.
''Party of Lincoln and Roosevelt''?
Not even close.
''To destroy this invisible Government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.''
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 1912, in forming the Bull Moose Party- Reply to this comment
- Yeah, they found the Lincoln letter there along with huge sections of the Constitution cut out and buried on the Bush ranch.
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- Even if there are handwriting samples from Lincoln, the only thing that might be from Lincoln is the signature since, as is stated in the article, his secretary likely wrote it as he dictated it.
Posted by connapa at 01:26 PM : Nov 17, 2008
Yes, but they should be able to tell something just by his signature. Do the letters in the signature match the letters in the letter? Is the "l" written the same way? Is the "n" written the same way? Whoever wrote it could have tried to copy his handwriting, but a handwriting expert should be able to tell.
Posted by erasmus81 at 01:43 PM : Nov 17, 2008
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Then too, there are very clever and artful forgers, who have access to the very same letters and samples to which the appraisers have access.
Not all forgers are as bad as we were when when we forged our mother`s signatures on the teacher`s notes home. - Reply to this comment
- Some hail the late Presdident Ronald Reagan, but his speeches and letters were scripted and the former president was a stage actor.
Posted by Pensacola98
Yes, however, he learned all his lines very well.
Posted by observer2020 at 02:54 PM : Nov 17, 2008
Yes, he did. Much better than Ge...Ge...George B...B...Bush.
Trained actors really do have a polished delivery and idiots don`t. - Reply to this comment
- Some hail the late Presdident Ronald Reagan, but his speeches and letters were scripted and the former president was a stage actor.
Posted by Pensacola98
Yes, however, he learned all his lines very well. - Reply to this comment
