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Compassion

February the 12th marks the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. Now, if you wouldn’t mind, I would like to share a simple, yet profound letter that gives me a glimpse into the heart of this great leader. He genuinely cared about those he led. He was kind and gentle with the people he was around.

This letter was written November the 21st, 1864 to Mrs. Lydia Bixby, a dear woman who paid a terrible price in the ravages of war. This is what he wrote:

“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 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.”

21 Nov. 1864; quoted in Selections from the Letters, Speeches, and State Papers of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Ida M. Tarbell, Boston: Ginn and Company, 1911, p. 109.