Word & Centuries

Words and Centuries

Letter to the Widow Bixby, November 21, 1864

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 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

Many people ask the question, “Why write a letter? Why not tell the person?”  Maybe it is because “…writing a letter creates an intimacy that’s hard to achieve with spoken word.” one participant recently said as he covered is heart with his hand.  Words on a page are everlasting, a testimony of an experience and somehow have the ability to reveal details of the heart. 

Abe Lincoln wrote this letter to the Widow Bixby in 1864 to express his gratitude and sympathy for the death of her sons during the civil war.  His choices for communication at the time were in person or a handwritten letter.  Over a century later, in the one hundred thirty-seven words he penned, we still feel the deepness and are moved by the emotion he was trying to convey.  And even though we did not know him, when we read the words, it’s as if his voice and tone live on in the letter.

Letters have that power.

Sometimes events happen in our lives that are big. So big, it’s hard to make sense, because there is no sense to make. I imagine there were moments, when President Lincoln questioned his faith, questioned if this horrific war, a war full of bigger meaning and impact, was worth all the individual lives that were being taken. It was a war within a nation that had brothers fighting brothers, tearing families apart.  In times like these when events of this magnitude can paralyze even the strongest, finding a way to connect to something small, in this case writing a letter to a mother of fallen soldiers likely created a way to keep moving forward.  It provides a way to re-engage and feel a connection to something bigger.

Every one of us wants to know that our life mattered, that there was a reason or a purpose we are here.  I imagine, President Lincoln knew this when he both expressed his sympathy for the Widow Bixby’s loss and acknowledged that their death was not in vain. ”But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.” In these words live a legacy, a written account and reminder that each of our existence on this earth does matter.  And while the act of writing a letter may seem dated, a time consuming task when the options for communicating are many, words on a page have withstood the test of time as a way to convey what we think and how we feel. The page has a way of absorbing the pace of life, and creates a genuine presence and intimacy lost in other forms of communication.  It has a way of connecting our head and our heart, exposing something real, a naked vulnerability.

Letters have power…