Executive Mansion, Washington, November 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 have 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
To Mrs. Bixby
Boston, Massachusetts
SAYINGS FROM LINCOLN'S SPEECHES
Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.
I intend no modification of my oft-expressed wish that all men everywhere should be free.
A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.
I take the official oath today with no mental reservation and with no purpose to construe the constitution by any hypercritical rules.