The Bixby Letter

[ELCore]

You sure do reason differently than I do.

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(04-08-2013 01:05 PM)wsanto Wrote:  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.

As far as I can tell, several people reported that Hay claimed authorship of the Bixby letter. It would be nice to know more, but the discussions seem all to have been oral, not written, so we will never get more. As I've said before, all the sources seem to be independent of each other, and seem to have no reason to make it up.

After further consideration, I do agree that Hay's scrap books aren't good evidence at all. I think Burlingame jumped to a conclusion there.

But I think "genuine" implies no more than the work went out over Lincoln's signature; that is, with Lincoln's approbation. Which is also why it would be in the Complete Works (which, I believe, was compiled by Nicolay not Hay).