NOVEMBER 21, 1864:
President Lincoln, once a corporation lawyer for
the railroads, writes a prescient letter to Colonel William F. Elkins:
We may congratulate
ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of
treasure and blood. . . . It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic;
but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes
me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations
have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and
the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working
upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands
and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the
safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that
my suspicions may prove groundless.
On
the same day, our eloquent President writes what has become known as “The Bixby
Letter” to a Mrs. Bixby, a mother of five slain Union soldiers. Beginning with
the salutation “Dear Madam” it reads:
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
