Lincoln's Address to a Grieving Mother
One hundred and fifty years ago President Lincoln on November 21, 1964, wrote a consoling letter to Mrs. Lydia Bixby who lost her five sons in their service to the Union Army. Nearly eighty years later our Nation lost five bothers - the Sullivans - George, Frank, Joe, Matt, and Al - killed in action while serving on the Light Cruiser USS Janeau which sank on November 13, 1942. The losses to both families became the inspiration for the 1998 film, Saving Private Ryan.
When reading President Lincoln's letter I am awestruck by not only the loss that one family endured but also the depth of sincerity through elocution of the English language. It is a considered a literary work of art because of its honesty, poise, and the heartfelt expressed pain of human loss.
Do our current political leaders posses the same genuine empathy and concern toward those who have given their lives to the Republic they served?
President Lincoln's letter reads...
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
