The Bixby Letter

[wsanto]

(04-07-2013 03:54 PM)ELCore Wrote:  

(04-03-2013 11:38 AM)wsanto Wrote:  Now if Hay wrote the Bixby letter in the course of his normal duties of writing a large percentage of Lincoln's correspondence why did he not use these same words and phrases in these other letters typically credited to Lincoln?

Perhaps because no other letters were of a kind, or concerning a topic, or about an occasion, that called for their use. How often would the word "beguile" in any of its many possible meanings, or synonyms, be occasioned in presidential correspondence? No matter who actually wrote it, apparently only once during Lincoln's.

So we can agree that the unique use of the word "beguile" does little to exclude Lincoln or promote Hay as the author?

Can we also stipulate that we don't know the context of Hay's discussions with others who have subsequently reported that Hay wrote the letter? Similar to stipulating that we don't know the context of Robert Lincoln's letter claiming that Hay admitted to him that he had nothing to do with the Bixby letter.

We also do not know the reasons Hay might have had for including or excluding any of Lincoln's letters to his scrapbook. If he wrote the majority of Lincoln's correspondence, as he reported to Herndon, then he excluded quite a bit of his work from his scrapbook.

We do have Hay's statement that the Bixby letter was genuine, implying Lincoln was the author, and that he included it into his volume of the Collected Works of Lincoln. And, apparently, making no claims of authorship at that time.